September 4, 2007 11:10 AM PDT

Study: iPhone tops July smart-phone sales

By Dawn Kawamoto
Staff Writer, CNET News

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Study: iPhone tops July smart-phone sales

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News - Apple
July 24, 2007

In July, Apple's iPhone topped all smart phones in U.S. unit sales, according to a consumer survey released Tuesday by market researcher iSuppli.

During its first full month of sales, Apple's highly anticipated smart phone grabbed 1.8 percent of the U.S. consumer mobile-handset market, according to iSuppli. The research firm's survey of more than 2 million U.S. consumers indicated sales of 220,000 iPhones in July. In its first 30 hours, before its fiscal third quarter ended on June 30, Apple sold 270,000 iPhones.

"While iSuppli has not collected historical information on this topic, it's likely that the speed of the iPhone's rise to competitive dominance in its segment is unprecedented in the history of the mobile-handset market," iSuppli noted in its report.

The research firm predicts that 4.5 million iPhones will ship during the 2007 calendar year, with figures rising to more than 30 million in 2011. But while the initial sales of the iPhone have been brisk, some market watchers had expected sales to be three times larger in the initial 30 hours that they were on sale.

Nonetheless, the iPhone outsold all smart phones in July, including the BlackBerry series, Palm's portfolio of smart phones, as well as those of Motorola, Nokia, Samsung Electronics and others sold through a branded service provider. iPhone sales, meanwhile, rivaled those of LG Electronics' Chocolate smart phone.

iSuppli categorizes the iPhone as a crossover phone, putting it between the smart-phone and feature phone categories.

The research firm's U.S. Consumer Panel Survey found that 52 percent of iPhone buyers were male and that 57 percent of all domestic buyers were ages 35 years or younger. Approximately 25 percent of purchasers switched their mobile phone service to AT&T, which currently is the exclusive U.S. carrier for the iPhone.

See more CNET content tagged:
iSuppli Corp., Apple iPhone, smart phone, Apple Computer, research company

Add a Comment (Log in or register) 19 comments

More baseless iphone hype
by Magicland September 4, 2007 12:40 PM PDT: First, the iphone isn't a smartphone. You'd think cnet would be smart enough to figure that out. It's a "feature phone", as its features aren't easily extensible via 3rd party applications. Now, when you compare its sales to other feature phone sales, we find it actually sold as many as the stale LG Chocolate. Of course, LG didn't spend tons of money shilling the chocolate like apple did the iphone, or have the media lackeys at their feet. Where are the big headlines "LG Chocolate matches iphone sales"? If anything, the headlines should be heralding the HUGE drop-off in iphone sales. apple sold more units in the first two days as it did in the entire next month. Based on this trend, where does isuppli come up with their figures of 4.5 million sales in 2007? Even ignoring the drop in sales, and assuming they might hold steady, despite the apparent market saturation which is already stagnating iphone sales, my math shows sales of just over 1.5 million. Don't know where they're getting three times that many from. Not that many folks are going to run out and buy a $600 phone that requires another $2000 in service commitments as Christmas presents.; Reply to this comment View all 5 replies
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Not smart phone....but Brilliant phone
by MaLvaDo39 September 4, 2007 12:51 PM PDT: Once again Apple shows everyone how to innovate and correct a
flawed market. Consumers are a lot smarter now and can see
brilliance in the iPhone.

Now sit back and watch the bloodbath as Microsoft and others
copy as much as they can... puhleaze.; Reply to this comment View reply
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iSuppli supplies their own data?
by Vegaman_Dan September 4, 2007 2:34 PM PDT: ""While iSuppli has not collected historical information on this topic, it's likely that the speed of the iPhone's rise to competitive dominance in its segment is unprecedented in the history of the mobile-handset market," iSuppli noted in its report."

Translation: We have no data to back up our claim, but we'll make up claims anyways.

Um... right.

Somehow I'm not really going to count a company called 'iSuppli' as an unbiased source when it comes to iPhones. Seems just a leeeeeettle bit fishy to me.; Reply to this comment View reply
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Forget the hype, watch the people
by rcrusoe September 4, 2007 2:48 PM PDT: Those people who don't believe the iPhone is going to be big just need to watch what happens when John Q. Public actually sees one.

I was recently in a Verizon store on company business when I got a call on my iPhone. Let's just say the place was packed and the store manager was not a happy camper when I answered.; Reply to this comment View reply
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The Zune
by RonningFamily September 4, 2007 9:03 PM PDT: OMG LOL, never should have copied the IPOD Model...No Pod Casts,

No Contest!! Winth the New Ipod coming out without the phone (same look) it is time to close down the Zune Factory!!

Check Mate!!; Reply to this comment

Oops. Blackberries outsold iPhone 2-1 instead
by kevindarling September 9, 2007 6:57 AM PDT: http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2007/09/06/correction-blackberry-outsells-iphone-2-to-1-in-july; Reply to this comment

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