Apple has announced its next-generation iPhone, the iPhone 3G, has been an enormous success with one million phones sold in the first three days on the market. The company has also sold more than 10 million applications via its App Store.
Update posted below
Digital Journal — Very few companies have the marketing power of Apple and the proof is in the sale pudding: The company announced today it sold one million iPhone 3Gs and more than 10 million applications in its first weekend.
On July 11, the iPhone 3G launched in 21 countries — Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK and the US. It will also go on sale in France on July 17.
“iPhone 3G had a stunning opening weekend,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO, in a news release. “It took 74 days to sell the first one million original iPhones, so the new iPhone 3G is clearly off to a great start around the world.”
Apple must also be glowing today with the success of its App store, where iPhone 3G users can download programs and applications for their handhelds.
The Apple App Store is a marketplace where developers can offer a wide range of mobile applications for iPhone 3G users. Developers make the applications available for download for free or at a cost, and Apple gets a 30 per cent revenue cut of all sales.
The store features everything from mobile Facebook applications to video games, and users wirelessly download any of the 800 native applications currently available. At time of writing, Apple says there are more than 200 applications that are free of charge.
The iPhone 3G is well positioned going forward, as Apple’s move to allow developers to hawk their wares means a very large external community can help fuel to sales without Apple doing anything.
Update: In Canada, Rogers Wireless has announced it has sold tends of thousands of iPhones, selling out in most cities across the country. The weekend marks the best-selling handset weekend in Rogers Wireless history.
Rogers says it has just received a new massive shipment to make up for the demand.
“As Canada’s leading wireless carrier, Rogers Wireless is thrilled to bring iPhone 3G to Canadians on Canada’s fastest wireless network,” says John Boynton, SVP and Chief Marketing Officer, Rogers Wireless, in a news release. “With iPhone 3G, we’ve had the best weekend sales of a handset in Rogers Wireless history. We want to thank all our customers for their enthusiastic response, as we welcome our new iPhone 3G customers to the fastest and most reliable network in Canada, and we appreciate the loyalty of all our existing customers who upgraded to an iPhone 3G. For our future iPhone 3G customers, tens of thousands of new devices will be in stores from coast to coast no later than tomorrow.”
