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September 22, 2008 3:50 PM PDT

Piper: Apple sold 5 million iPhone 3Gs in quarter

by Tom Krazit

Piper Jaffray is estimating that Apple will have sold 5 million iPhone 3Gs during the current quarter.

(Credit: Apple)

One Apple follower is putting a guess on the number of iPhone 3Gs Apple will have sold during the current quarter: 5 million.

We already know that Apple sold 1 million iPhone 3Gs in the first weekend it went on sale around the world, and Piper Jaffray believes the company has added another 4 million units to that total since then, according to a research note released Monday. Apple will reveal the formal totals in about a month when it reports earnings for its fourth fiscal quarter.

Despite several launch day glitches and widespread bugs in the iPhone's 2.0 software, enthusiasm for the phone seems high. The other big factor this time around, as compared to the iPhone's early days, is the huge increase in the number of countries that are now officially selling the iPhone.

The main number to watch is 10 million: that's the number of iPhones Apple has consistently said is its target for 2008. That number appears easily within reach if the 5 million estimate is accurate: Apple sold around 2.5 million iPhones during the first six months of 2008 as it ran out of the original model.

Tom Krazit writes about the ever-expanding world of Internet search, including Google, Yahoo, online advertising, and portals, as well as the evolution of mobile computing. He has written about traditional PC companies, chip manufacturers, and mobile computers, spending the last three years covering Apple. E-mail Tom.
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by eltoro2827 September 22, 2008 4:06 PM PDT
Actually 4,999,999, I returned my last week because of no hotmail email support, crappy touch screnn keyboard, battery life is half assed, slow 3g speeds...etc....
Reply to this comment
by technewsjunkie September 22, 2008 4:42 PM PDT
But you bought it anyway after your research.
Interesting.
by Galaxy5 September 22, 2008 4:55 PM PDT
"I returned my last week"

I sincerely doubt that, as you've trolled every iPod story during the past three months, but whatever.
by eltoro2827 September 22, 2008 6:33 PM PDT
troll you make call me...but it is true.
by lkrupp September 22, 2008 4:32 PM PDT
"Actually 4,999,999, I returned my last week because of no hotmail email support, crappy touch screnn keyboard, battery life is half assed, slow 3g speeds...etc...."

Yes, yes, we're all aware of the "perpetually disappointed" syndrome. Quite a nasty mental illness to be always complaining about everything. Kinda screws up your life. Very sad.
Reply to this comment
by W Macaulay September 22, 2008 4:52 PM PDT
I brought it up to 5,000,001 as a PC enthusiast who is now a convert to Mac design. Granted I'm getting on just as the 2.1 release came out, but the GPS works flawlessly with Google Maps. And Outlook syncs with it just fine. Perhaps someone will come out with a tray app (rather than iTunes) to permit anytime synching... because then we'd be golden.
Reply to this comment
by Galaxy5 September 22, 2008 4:56 PM PDT
Unfortunately, this means Apple is on the hook for something north of four million $1.00 iPhone power adapters.
Reply to this comment
by Cushing1 September 22, 2008 5:58 PM PDT
"I brought it up to 5,000,001 as a PC enthusiast who is now a convert to Mac design."
The best thing that the iPhone and new IPod can achieve is to convince PC enthusiasts of the superiority of Mac designs. Anyone who tries the operating system on an Apple computer will never want to retreat back to Windows. I expect Mac to bring down the price of its laptop computers next month to make them more attractive to potential buyers.
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by dude7895 September 22, 2008 6:29 PM PDT
And how many have been returned?
Reply to this comment
by Perry_Clease September 22, 2008 7:29 PM PDT
Only one that we know of :)

"by eltoro2827 September 22, 2008 4:06 PM PDT
Actually 4,999,999, I returned my last week because of no hotmail email support, crappy touch screnn keyboard, battery life is half assed, slow 3g speeds...etc...."
by samkass September 22, 2008 7:37 PM PDT
To estimate that, take the total number of posts you see of people claiming to have returned theirs and divide by 5 since anyone who does so seems to post it 5 times everywhere they visit. No one I know who's bought one has returned theirs.
by CyStarkman September 22, 2008 7:49 PM PDT
@ Dude, good question. I reckon the answer goes something like this.

As many as there are whining Americans hungry for their half second of class action fame while having a tantrum over their nations inferior mobile network and angrily comparing the battery life of their old CDMA phone with a one inch 64 colour screen to that of their first 3G handset.

Naturally the solution was to blame Apple who personally invented 3G and made headlines rolling it out to the world (ie: the USA) ... NOT! And for making the criminally culpable claim it was 2x faster on the Internet than EDGE, LOL, imagine if they had told the truth, that it was 10x faster, if you had a decent network (basically lived in any nation but the USA (not quite true, but fun to say)). ROTFLMAO

Oh I forgot to include the frightened, impatient and change resistant mob who freak out when it takes more than 5 seconds to get good on a keyboard, while having no memory of the fact it a) took them years to get up to their legendary 20wpm that they are comparing against and b) that every darn keyboard, physical or otherwise has slightly different key spacing and sizing which catches you out when you move between computers any how.

The other people, who for example wanted

- MS compatibility
- A Blackberry
- A cheap phone
- A video phone (to experience the joy of the 5fps 172x120 noise that 3G offers)
- A phone with buttons (to get jammed with dirt and rub off within a few months)
- A phone with direct access to its file system (pitch for PhoneView on Mac, which for $20 lets you do it (I am a customer))
- A phone with a battery cover (to let in all sorts of bad news that kills phones)
- Or anything else the iPhone never claimed to offer anyway such as access to the 2 legged dog that is Hotmail (poor thing, i remember the good old days).

( @ ElToro BTW if you pay MS to let you access Hotmail via POP, you could have used your iPhone)

Well those people, they never, well at least the ones who research something they might buy, they never bought an iPhone to take back.

Errr, well maybe as lKrupp pointed out, they might have, because they suffered from the illness that makes a person need to be always outraged at something.

Nah, not being a troll, just stating the obvious, in a cheeky way.

;-)
Reply to this comment
by NetWild24k September 23, 2008 5:12 AM PDT
I would love to buy a I-Phone but my problem is that I'm with t-Mobile atm. Why won't Apple let Sprint/T-Mobile/etc sell their phones? They are Limiting how many people they sell their phones to. Apple would sell maybe double the amount they sell atm. That's more profit. So why? It's hard as hell to get a At&t account. They want you to put a huge down payment, WHY? One of my friends have a IPhone and he says that browsing the web/downloading is slow as hell sometimes. Well anyway... Another thing is why hasn't another company come out with a phone to compete against the IPhone? The IPhone has been out for years now and still know competitors.. WOW?

I'm just someone that would love to have a Iphone but is with the wrong carrier...
Reply to this comment
by CrashPad63 September 23, 2008 8:36 AM PDT
How many of these 5 million are actual retail sales? Other reports show that of the initial 1 million for the 1st weekend only 600 thousand ended up actual reatil customers, the rest where in the distribution channel from Apple to the wholesalers. What exactly is the truth here?
Reply to this comment
by Xtoo September 23, 2008 9:16 AM PDT
Sales to final customers are not considered in the corporate world. Apple sells the iPhones to ATT, Best Buy and their own Apple stores. Once the phones or shampoo or pepper or paper plates leave a warehouse, that is considered a full sale.

And that's the way all businesses work.
Reply to this comment
by HeySoSueMe September 25, 2008 9:48 AM PDT
All said and done, it would be nice to know the number of units sold vs. the number returned.

For example, 5 mil sold, 20K returned would suggest that it is has a very high customer satisfaction rating.
Reply to this comment
by myles taylor September 27, 2008 10:19 AM PDT
If there were enough being returned to make a dent in the number, it would have made headlines and seriously hurt the bottom line. I'd say that hardly enough are returned in a month to cover one day of sales.
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