Prince McLeanApple announced quarterly iPhone sales that surpassed those of BlackBerry maker Research in Motion by nearly a million and a half units or 25%: nearly 6.9 million iPhones versus the 5.4 to 6.1 million BlackBerry units RIM sold per quarter during the same calendar quarter in 2008. Apple and RIM have non-overlapping fiscal quarters.
Apple also exceeded estimates for Mac and iPod sales by selling more Macs that in any previous quarter and more iPods than in any non-holiday quarter, but passing RIM to become America's best selling smartphone platform, as well as passing its ten million iPhone goal a full quarter early, is sure to catch the most attention of Apple's sales announcements.
RIM has been selling its popular devices for nearly eight years, and achieved peak sales this year after doubling its sales year over year. Apple's ability to catch up and surpass RIM's sales in the course of a single year should strike additional fear in the hearts of boardrooms of companies with smartphone platforms that are doing far worse than RIM, including Nokia's Symbian and Microsoft's Windows Mobile.
Apple also announced that it is now the third largest mobile phone maker by revenue, after Nokia and Samsung. With mobile sales of $4.6 billion for the quarter, Apple is ahead of Sony Ericsson $4.2 billion, LG at $3.4 billion, Motorola with $3.2 billion, and seventh place RIM at $2.1 billion.
Additional Coverage
Andrew Orr
Christine McKee
Sponsored Content
Wesley Hilliard
AppleInsider Staff
Amber Neely
42 Comments
Though I am not surprised that Aooke hit the 10,000,000 sales target early it is impressive that they have surpassed Rim.
A better than expected quarter, though the new MacBook pricing at least here in the UK is a bit higher than expected, I myself am waiting for the new iMacs.
Does anyone remember the naysayers when the iPhone was originally announced? I do. "They" said that Apple was out of its league in the mobile phone business. "They" said that Apple would get its head handed to it on a plate by the big boys like Nokia and RIM. "They" said the iPhone wouldn't be the success that the iPod was because Apple would have some real competition from ruthless, experienced mobile phone manufacturers who knew and controlled a difficult market.
But once again SJ and company have come up with totally disruptive technology packaged in an easy to use form that has shot dead many of the business models thought to be indisputable. The so-called ruthless cell phone manufacturers are scrambling to deal with this disruption in their markets. It's a pleasure to watch this going down. Oh the schadenfreude!
....as well as passing its ten million iPhone goal a full quarter early.....
Not quite Daniel. 9.312 million iPhones in the first 3 quarters.
Curious, is this iphone 3g against blackberry phones or one phone??
Steve Ballmer said:
"Would I trade 96% of the market for 4% of the market? I want to have products that appeal to everybody," he said. "We'll get a chance to go through this [Apple versus Microsoft debate] again in phones and music players. There's no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance. It's a $500 subsidized item. They may make a lot of money. But if you actually take a look at the 1.3 billion phones that get sold, I'd prefer to have our software in 60% or 70% or 80% of them, than I would to have 2% or 3%, which is what Apple might get."
So Apple must be lying or something.
</sarcasm>