iPhone sales look smarter than the average phone

Just because Apple doesn’t release detailed sales figures until the end of the quarter doesn’t mean we can’t all speculate endlessly about how the iPhone’s doing. And just to contribute to such rampant musing, we can pore over numbers like those from market research firm iSuppli.

According to the company, which conducts monthly surveys of American consumers, the iPhone took 1.8% of the US handset market in July. While it might not sound like a lot, it’s important to consider that it’s a very competitive and saturated market, and 1.8% is the same share commanded by the LG Chocolate, itself the most popular “feature” phone (phones including features like a camera or a music player) on sale.

The iPhone sales also managed to trump the numbers of all smartphones, though iSuppli considers the iPhone a “crossover” phone, due to its lack of third-party applications. The iPhone sold more than any individual smartphone, as well as the entire Palm and RIM Blackberry series. Also, roughly 25% of those who bought an iPhone switched to AT&T from an existing provider, suggesting room for growth.

Of course, the iPhone benefited from levels of hype hitherto unseen for a phone, which probably helped drive early sales. Whether the sales will continue strong as the hype dies down and the market moves from early adopters to average consumers remains to be seen. iSuppli is forecasting sales of 4.5 million iPhones this year, with over 30 million by 2011. Those estimates exceed Apple’s more modest numbers, which call for 10 million by the end of 2008, but we’ll have to wait until the end of the quarter for our next official data point.

Category: News

Posted by Dan Moren on Sep 4 2007, 11:48 AM ET

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