Love it or hate it…there is no denying that Apple’s iPhone is not only a game changer but a certifiable hit. Apple shared some interesting stats about the iPhone today. I culled some of the more interesting facts from the transcript of Apple’s fiscal fourth-quarter (ended September 30) earnings conference call, posted by the Apple 2.0 blog & Seeking Alpha.
- Since its launch on July 11, Apple sold 6.892 million 3G iPhones in the quarter, bringing the total number of iPhones sold so far to 12.992 million. Many of the new phones were sold to first-time buyers.
- Apple recognized $806 million in iPhone-related revenues for the quarter.
- If Apple didn’t defer the iPhone revenue, the iPhone sales would have accounted for about 39 percent of the adjusted total quarterly revenues. Jobs put the number at $4.6 billion.
- The iPhone will be sold in 70 countries by end of this year. It is currently sold in 51 countries.
- By revenues, Apple is now the 3rd largest mobile phone maker behind Nokia and Samsung, ahead of Sony & LG Electronics. Samsung had revenues of $5.9 billion and it seems beatable.
- iPhone is outselling RIM. Jobs kept hammering on that point during the conference call.
- Apple says that in the 102 days since the iPhone Apps store opened, nearly 200 million iPhone apps have been downloaded. There are about 5500 apps available on the iPhone Apps store. Follow iPhone Apps on our TheAppleBlog. (Related story: What about that iPhone Bump?)
In response to an analyst’s question, Jobs said that while the company has a “miniscule market share of the mobile phone market” and that it “may not appeal to every prospective customer,” but “the percentage of prospective customers we need to attract in order to significantly increase our market share isn’t that many.” Rest of the mobile business, please make a note of that.
Apple’s volume-to-revenue ratio should scare its rivals. “The traditional game in the phone market has been to produce a voice phone in a hundred different varieties,” Jobs replied to a question about how he can play in the market with one version of the device. Jobs said that software (and user experience) are Apple’s current and future strategy. “From everything I heard, Babe Ruth had only one home run; he just kept hitting it over and over again.”
Update: I just wanted to point out that we made some observations about iPhone and how it was going to change the wireless business. All those things did indeed happen and the details from Apple’s most recent financial report proves that.
It’s obviously a great piece of kit and is certain to dominate the space it’s in. I wonder how many people with N95s or N82s (like me) would have an iphone if we weren’t tied into 2-year contracts.
In terms of challenging Nokia we would need to know what percentage of Nokia’s revenues come from the smart phone market. I’ve heard that although it’s a small share of total sales, the margins on smart phones are much larger than the cheaper phones. If that’s the case it could really dent Nokia’s profits. Unless they do something soon my next phone will probably be an iphone – and I live in Helsinki!
Finland’s startup blog http://www.arcticstartup.com just had a post about Nokia maybe changing direction and abandoning symbian or experimenting with android. That would be interesting.
Apple sucks in asia where people prefer to buy nokia , sony erricsson or RIM , motorola rather iphone as its 4 times more expensive than whats its in US and substandard carrier pricing which is hard to explain ! , Asia is where around 1 billion of active mobile population (and growing) and they are not going use it till apple fixes the problem
Finsense – Nokia sold 15m smartphones in their last quarter. Only 3x the number of iPhones.
The key stat though is that Nokias net income on devices in the last quarter was $2bn. iPhone net income was $1.3bn. That astonishing.
@gp:
4 times more expensive!!! slight case of bad maths mate.
My iPhone ( White one, therefore most expensive ) cost $140 more than a Nokia E65. I buy my mobiles outright and if you call that 4 times more expensive, then I would like some of what your smoking.
Motorola was initialy very successful with one phone strategy. It worked initially, by the time they figured its not working anymore it was too late.
@john
http://www.vodafone.in/existingusers/products/pages/iphone3g_emi.aspx
http://www.airtel.in/iphone3g/getready.html
iphone us cost 199 usd
iphone india cost 729.424 USD
you do the maths 😉
If apple offer US price in indian apple can sold 4 time this ?
I was expecting to see 7 reasons that might help to explain why apple have been successful rather than 7 points of evidence that clearly demonstrate that they have been.
So I’ll put in my 2 cents (or two reasons anyway):
#2 there’s no denying that apple put together a pretty good product but;
#1 Apple did a fantastic job marketing their product. They timed the launch perfectly to produce a great quarter, and with Christmas on the way ensure a strong follow up quarter.
“#1 Apple did a fantastic job marketing their product.”
I agree but it’s worth pointing out that a lot of people who use Apple products act like cult members. They are completely obsessive and impervious to reason. Apple could put out a toilet roll made of sandpaper and they would buy it – because it’s Apple.
When you have a zealous following you will always get better marketing because these people will camp outside stores for three days and prosylatize to their friends. That’s newsworthy and creates buzz. That’s the trick.
If Apple devotees ever grow a brain, Apple might be in trouble. Its products are fine but they are closed and they’re over-priced. Apple should be seen more like Microsoft.
Are you joking…do we really need any confirmation? in just 15 months apple managed to create a Nokia/3 !!! i give Apple 2-3 years to become No.1
btw – and they only got one model vs 100+ Nokia’s…hilarious:)
FINNSENSE wrote: “I agree but it’s worth pointing out that a lot of people who use Apple products act like cult members. They are completely obsessive and impervious to reason. Apple could put out a toilet roll made of sandpaper and they would buy it – because it’s Apple.”
and: “If Apple devotees ever grow a brain, Apple might be in trouble. Its products are fine but they are closed and they’re over-priced. Apple should be seen more like Microsoft.”
A propagandist creep from NOKIA, no doubt.
can you imagine how many more it would sell if it did not have the AT&T (and other telco) TCO attached to it?
@Allen
You might want to read this post of mine from the past. http://gigaom.com/2008/06/24/symbian-iphone-the-new-mobile-reality/ and this one http://gigaom.com/2007/06/12/5-ways-iphone-will-change-the-wireless-biz/
they should give you answers. i actually made some observations then and I think they still hold true.
@vinnie mirchandani
I agree and that is why I still use Blackberry most of the time.
Seriously you’re gonna have to change the name of this blog to the Apple Suckup Blog. You never post anything critical of Apple and the only time you mention Windows Mobile (ya know, that mobile OS that has more features, more market share and more phones than Apple) is when you lie to make them look bad. It’s not reporting, it’s sucking up.
“A propagandist creep from NOKIA, no doubt.”
I said in an earlier post my next phone might be an iphone. You probably missed it because you were too busy in the bathroom with your macbook. 😉
So Apple didn’t make its 10 million sales target for the year after launch then?
That’s very interesting…!
Max – Not sure where your 15 million/quarter figure comes from for Nokia, but they sold 435 million phones last year, more like 35 million per month. Apple still has some catching up to to do.
BTW – Om, from your headline I expected to read about causes, not symptoms.
One (maybe two) of the bullet points are about *how* the iPhone is a smash, not why it is a smash. Sorry, I’m all about semantics this morning.
Iphone do all but nothing good! It’s only snobbery. I have an Iphone, I’m snob in the world of technologies.
Dang. T-Mobile’s Android phone has its work cut out for it. I can’t go 10 minutes in Seattle without seeing an iPhone. Meanwhile I *just* saw the first Android phone in the wild today.
That’s 10 million people who will look pretty stupid when they see how superior the Android phones are.
Beating LG in revenues is really not that hard, especially when you see how the iPhone revenues should be considered fraud at over $1500 per phone including the basic 2 year subscription, for a phone that barely costs $150 to manufacture.
Android is going to take over quickly by a factor of 10 to 1. Cause you are going to be able to buy unsubsidized unlocked Android phones at $150 pretty soon, that also will be data-centric running VOIP and IM on free White Spaces and HSDPA instead of crappy expensive voice and sms plans.
Had an iPhone and it was stolen while on a trip. I spent two hours being angry that someone had stolen something from me and twenty hours laughing because now the piece of crap was someone else’s problem and I could upgrade to a phone that could actually do something besides look at itself in the mirror and say “I’m pretty.”
I love my iPhone. It changed the way I use a mobile device. Before, I had an LG phone that was a phone and txt device (with a crappy camera), and for work I had a Blackberry, which was an e-mail device (with a crappy phone). The Web function on the Blackberry was unusable for regular surfing.
My iPhone is my phone, my datebook, my stock-checker, my weather guide, my car map, my regular-use Web browser, my e-mail client, my camera and much more. It FREES me from my PC for all purposes except writing papers etc. Sure, not all features are perfect (I’d love a higher res camera), but so many are so damn close that, at least for me, the iPhone changed everything. I could NEVER go back to my old cell phone ever again.
I also like the fact that the iPhone has spurred a new round of innovation from the rest of the players. I don’tparticularly care if Apple wins or not, but they certainly have awoken a sleeping giant that was almost comatose.
@jaggs, Apple has already beat the 10 million projection, with 2 1/2 months to go in the year.
Android is not going to be a threat until they can make using them as pleasant as using the iPhone.
The problem with techies is that they have no sense of ease of use, aesthetics, or grace. I am a techie and I didn’t “get it” about Apple until a few years ago. Features, “openeness,” — no one gives a hoot except you guys. Real people want devices that do their intended function elegantly and well, not devices that satisfy some bullet points.
Also: people don’t want choice, even though they will always say they do. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.
Meanwhile AT&T missed analysts’ estimates due to iPhone’s heavy subsidy. Mactards are not the only ones screwed by the Apple tax. LOL.
$4.6 billion in revenue divided by 6.9 million units means $666.67 per iPhone. So, this in turn means AT&T gives Apple ~400$ for each iPhone sold.
So now that all Apple fanboys have their iPhone, who will Apple sell it to in order to reach 3 times more units shipped and hit the $12 billion in revenue, a number that Nokia hits consistently?
@jhn: 12 months from launch was July 2008. They sold 6m in last quarter July/Aug/Sept, to get to 13m, so they didn’t make the 10m in 12 months from launch.
Paul, Nokia sold 15m smartphones in that period. They call them their “converged mobile devices” in the accounts, but it basically means the N and E series phones. So 15m phones with nice margins. Almost all of the other phones they sell (the other 90m) are low end models that contribute little to the bottom line.
I totally agree. all phones have their cons…but for Apple iphone…who cares. this device is by far the most revolutionary phone ever invented by any one.
http://www.livbit.com
I have had my IPhone 3G for a week now. I went from a BlackBerry Curve. My only main concern was I could not tether to my Laptop with the IPhone but let me tell you I absolutely LOVE it. I just cannot get enough of it. No doubt the coolest phone I have EVER had. The battery life is short so make sure you carry a car charger.
Jiff
http://www.internet-privacy.pl.tc
The iPhone has its glitches but for the time its been out (not that long), it represents an amazing leap of technology, which I think we are all now taking for granted as the Google/T-Mobile G1 phone makes its debut today with almost a yawn.
The iPhone was the first and will probably continue to be the leader.
Here are steps to get one of these iPhones for FREE!
http://www.squidoo.com/free16gbiphone3g
@jaggs
Apple actually announced their goal was to sell 10 million phones by the end of 2008, not one year after launch. As usual, they were conservative with their guidance.
@Charbax
It’s funny to me to read that the phone will cost “over $1,500 per phone including the basic 2 year subscription.” It makes it sound like any other phone you buy has free calling and data plans. If you know of a company offering that, please enlighten me. I pay $60.00 per month for my two-line service with Sprint, with no data, just voice and voicemail. That’s $1,440.00 over two years. If I get an iPhone, and I plan to, I will pay more than $1,500.00 over two years, but not a helluva lot more, and I’ll be GETTING a lot more than I get with my basic old Sanyo phone. Admittedly, that would be for one line, not two, but my wife has no interest in an iPhone, preferring basic calling and voicemail and will pay for her own service through her own business. So my monthly payment will barely increase but I’ll have a powerful, multifunction tool instead of just a cell phone. In other words, try a different line of FUD. AT&T’s plans are about on par with those of other carriers. The iPhone is superior in many, but not all, ways to most other phones. Sure, I wish it were unlocked. I wish it had a camera in front for iChat or Skype video conferencing. I wish it had a removable memory card. Wish in one hand and spit in the other and see which one fills up first.
iPhone is currently the gold standard in phones. Don’t like it? Don’t buy one. But don’t spread FUD.
None of your bullet points are reasons why the iphone is a hit. You are describing its success with each.
Worst article ever.
Nokia Smartphone sales:
Nokia sold 8 million N Series and 3 million E Series phones in the last quarter. They’ve said as much in their fiscal report. That’s 11 million smartphones for Nokia, and Apple compares quite well to that with about 7 million iPhones.
Very good point. But people still do not like to be bound by such binding laws.
Christian, if you like getting screwed by carriers, have fun with that.
I find it scandalous that carriers make over $1500 of revenues per user that they sign up. That should be considered fraud, and in fact in some countries like Denmark that have consumer protection laws it is fraud.
The devices cost less then $150 to mass manfucatrure. Signing people up for $1500 contracts is ridiculous. If you think that’s normal have fun with that.
I pay $8 for my unlocked mobile phone, that has much better battery life for voice calls then the iphone, and which works on cheap pre-paid plans.
The iphone is a fraud. A bunch of idiots get all excited about giving their money away to big coorporations for a big lie of a phone device. Why do you need such a big screen on your phone, it is useless.
Its $800 in India, so I guess we still have to be awed by iPhone en masses.
The time has come for AT&T and Apple to release the power hold. We are a mobile gaming portal that offers mobile phone games for iphone and other mobile devices and it is hard for us to compete in the iphone gaming market the same way we can and have been doing successfully in the regular cellphone gaming and free mobile games (ad driven) world. Bring on Google Android, it should be a GAME changer. http://www.thumbthug.com
Your reasons seem to be mainly capitalist. Just because Apple sold a lot of iPhones doesn’t mean it is good. The Holocaust was also popular in Germany – doesn’t mean it’s good. So long.
Nokia rules…Iphone is for kids.
It is still amazing to look at Apples transformation over the past 2 decades. Steve has proven himself as the CEO and Apple is a revolutionary. The IPhone is only the beginning.
Sean
There is an 8th reason:
Commodore doesn’t sell the C64 anymore 🙂
Umm, The non-deceptive title of this article would be “7 pieces of proof why the iPhone is a smash hit”
because NONE of those are reasons WHY, they simply are evidence backing up the fact that it is a smash it.
I thought you were actually going to list the 7 things the iPhone can do that made it a smash hit. BAH
when you buy iphone it is a phone but when you do jailbreak it becomes iphone
I agree with the sentiment that it’s innovative and user focussed which is why it sells so well.
These are statistics supporting that it is a hit. They are not reasons why it is a hit. the title is a misnomer.
The iPhone is just a great awe inspiring device. For those folks who love surfing the web it’s crack cocaine. The beauty of the iPhone is also the durability of the screen. It doesn’t scratch and looks new for the duration you own the device.
its must be a great hit into the market.iPhone combines three products in one — a revolutionary phone, a widescreen iPod, and a breakthrough Internet device with rich HTML email and a desktop-class web browser.and lot more.well its a device of exclusive specification.
So is the Ipod all that it is made out to be? Im torn between getting three phones, the iphone, LG Cookie and Blackberry? Any suggestions on what the best one is to get?
The iphone has been an amazing success. But still i hope its a passing fad of this decade along with all other virtual key board devices, I dont like how the iphone functions or its input device (capacitive touch screen). Its not good enough to be classed as a premium phone, yet many people think it is.
I have been tempted to buy one at times but through reviewing its features have decided its not for me, its not even attractive.
Sorry for the late comment lol but I had to add my 2 cents in regards to the iPhone ( smash it) theory.. ofcourse there is no doubt that Apple took the market and lets admit that they deserve it, the way they market their products and the hype they create is unbelievable.. at some point it is unethical ( from my point of view)
The way that Apple leaves people waiting inlines for months and only sell 100 phones a day so they can keep the hype is kind of humiliating but again this is marketing.. and that is why they are successful. I cant wait for the New iPhone 5 since I was gonna buy the 4 but decided to wait.. lets see what they will offer lol