Apple Reaches 10 Million iPhone Sales Goal for 2008

[MacRumors]

Apple revealed that the company had met its self-imposed goal of selling 10 million iPhones in calendar 2008.

Steve Jobs first described the goal in January 2007 when he introduced the iPhone. The 10 million iPhone sales represented 1% of mobile phones sold at that time.

With today's financial results, Apple revealed that the iPhone 3G had sold 6,892,000 this Quarter alone, and when combined with previous and current iPhone sales apparently add up to over 10 million with two more months to go.

Article Link: Apple Reaches 10 Million iPhone Sales Goal for 2008

 

[DMann]

Phenomenal! This is only the beginning.

 

[plumbingandtech]

iBELIEVE IT!

 

[queshy]

Interesting how they were right on with how popular it would be....

 

[nick9191]

And at least another 5 million over the Christmas season.

 

[schneb]

Coming decision by Steve Jobs. "We have decided to go with a dark, smoked glass on all iPhones and iPod Touch--it just looks so much cooler."

Lately, the decisions have been that ridiculous.

I'm happy for Apple with this news, but that does not change the fact that they are also pissing off their base with their other products (or lack of).

 

[TwinCities Dan]

Congrats Steve! The iPhone really has taken Apple to the next level!

 

[syadasti]

Pretty good but Nokia sells well over 10M smartphones a quarter. Total smartphone sales are small fraction of cellphone sales, about 10%. They'll remain so until hardware and phone plans become affordable for the average end-user.

Last quarter's figures from Gartner in units:

Gartner Overall Cellphone Sales:

 

[Mykbibby]

And they beat RIM! Yay!!!

 

[Mjmar]

Fantastic! and ahead of time

 

[bigmc6000]

I know this is nit-picking but it's not really 2 months to go. It's really 3. They haven't said anything about how many they've sold in the last 3 weeks. Maybe something like "with 1 quarter left in CY '08" would be more accurate.

I'm guessing around 5M for Holiday quarter.

 

[zombitronic]

Not by my math. The calendar year 2008 starts with the second fiscal quarter. By now, there have only been 3 fiscal quarters counted in 2008. Q2, Q3, and Q4. Q1 2009 would be the last 3 months of this year.

So by calendar year:
Q2: 1,703,000
Q3: 717,000
Q4: 6,892,000

That's 9,312,000. They still have to sell 688,000 by the end of the CALENDAR year.

 

[carfac]

Well, not the biggest Apple fan in the world, but I do Love the iPhone. It is a good product, generally well executed. This proves it.

I hate to sound like a broken record, or poop on this grand news.... but there is more to do to make it the best phone ever. I need not list the shortcomings. But the shortcomings are few, compared to all the good things that the phone does- as evidenced by the 10 million sales.

Hurrah for good products!

 

[bitWrangler]

Pretty good but Nokia sells well over 10M smartphones a quarter. Total smartphone sales are small fraction of cellphone sales, about 10%. They'll remain so until hardware and phone plans become affordable for the average end-user.

Listening to the conf call right now. Steve's basic take on this is:

A) while they pale in comparison to Nokia in units, they are now #3 (in prev quarter) in revenue from phones shipped and in a very real position to make it to #2 in the near future.

B) Apple is quite happy with where they are at in the market.

So basically, let Nokia sell all the phones they want, Apple is more than happy to sell far fewer phones for far more money. Basically a similar approach to the pc hardware business.

 

[neven]

Coming decision by Steve Jobs. "We have decided to go with a dark, smoked glass on all iPhones and iPod Touch--it just looks so much cooler."

Lately, the decisions have been that ridiculous.

I'm happy for Apple with this news, but that does not change the fact that they are also pissing off their base with their other products (or lack of).

Let me guess - you're the official spokesperson for the "Apple base", right?

Apple keeps shipping better and better products. The FireWire/copypaste/glossy screen-kind of moaning has been going on since the 80s; it's not a recent trend, it's not a sign of things changing at Apple, and it's not going to drive customers away.

Focus on the message at hand, jeez - they're going to sell way, way more units than predicted of a risky, saturated-market product than they expected themselves, and their prediction was considered madly optimistic at the time.

 

[LagunaSol]

"There's no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance." - Steve Ballmer, April 2007

That quote just never gets old.

 

[bitWrangler]

And they beat RIM! Yay!!!

Couple of other interesting notes on Apple vs. RIM.

- Apple sold more iphones than RIM sold ALL flavors of Blackberry.
- While the number of iphones vs Blackberries was small, Apple received > 2x the revenue from phone sales.
- Though Apple didn't break out individual numbers, a large percentage of all iphones sold in the quarter were to new users (i.e. not 1G upgraders to 3G). According to one of the analysts, 1/2 of RIM sales are upgrades. Take it for what it's worth, but if true, the bottom line is Apple market share is growing at a significantly higher rate than RIM.

 

[syadasti]

So basically, let Nokia sell all the phones they want, Apple is more than happy to sell far fewer phones for far more money. Basically a similar approach to the pc hardware business.

Yes its a small niche product. Smartphones are a small market and Apple is going to get a piece of that. Smartphone will never be mainstream when it cost over $1000/year minimum to use many of them.

 

[Cinematographer]

Not by my math. The calendar year 2008 starts with the second fiscal quarter. By now, there have only been 3 fiscal quarters counted in 2008. Q2, Q3, and Q4. Q1 2009 would be the last 3 months of this year.

So by calendar year:
Q2: 1,703,000
Q3: 717,000
Q4: 6,892,000

That's 9,312,000. They still have to sell 688,000 by the end of the CALENDAR year.

Exactly.

So how do they calculate?

 

[arn]

Not by my math. The calendar year 2008 starts with the second fiscal quarter. By now, there have only been 3 fiscal quarters counted in 2008. Q2, Q3, and Q4. Q1 2009 would be the last 3 months of this year.

So by calendar year:
Q2: 1,703,000
Q3: 717,000
Q4: 6,892,000

That's 9,312,000. They still have to sell 688,000 by the end of the CALENDAR year.

That 688,000 presumably is from sales in October which aren't included in Q4 results.

arn

 

[simX]

Not by my math. The calendar year 2008 starts with the second fiscal quarter. By now, there have only been 3 fiscal quarters counted in 2008. Q2, Q3, and Q4. Q1 2009 would be the last 3 months of this year.

So by calendar year:
Q2: 1,703,000
Q3: 717,000
Q4: 6,892,000

That's 9,312,000. They still have to sell 688,000 by the end of the CALENDAR year.

Yes, those are the official quarterly numbers. But Steve said on the conference call that they've already sold those remaining 688,000 iPhones during *this* quarter (the conference call is for *last* quarter). So they've met their deadline, and yes, there are only *two* months (and change) to go.

 

[zacman]

"There's no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance." - Steve Ballmer, April 2007

That quote just never gets old.

But he's right. 10 Million phones a year = 1% market share (in 2006). It's likely that it's less than 1% in 2008.

 

[elppa]

The lack of vision by some still depresses me.

Back in May people were still absolutely insistent Apple would get no where near their 10M number for 2008.

Smart phones won't always cost $1000 per year to run.

A company with a 0.7% growth is not in a better position than a company with 230% growth.

 

[Cinematographer]

Thanks, arn, for the clarification.

Edit: Thanks, simX, as well.

 

[neven]

Yes its a small niche product. Smartphones are a small market and Apple is going to get a piece of that. Smartphone will never be mainstream when it cost over $1000/year minimum to use many of them.

The average cost of a cable TV subscription in the US is only slightly less than the cost of an iPhone rate plan with AT&T. Add to that the cost of a typical TV set - it's more than an iPhone.

Just something to keep in mind when throwing around annual figures.