Apple financials highlight iPhone 3G success, boosts Apple to No. 3 mobile phone vendor
By Will Park on Tuesday, October 21st, 2008 at 5:51 PM PST In Announcements, Apple, Financial/Corporate News, Hottest Hardware, iPhone, iPhone OS
While the financial markets around the world are teetering back and forth, on the brink of collapse one day and on the road to recovery the next, Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) has managed to grow as one of the world’s premier mobile phone vendors. Apple today announced their fiscal Q4 financial statements, proving that the iPhone and iPhone 3G are paving the way for ever bigger paydays for Apple.
Apple managed to blow past its chief smartphone rival, BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) maker Research In Motion (RIM), with Q3 2008 sales of 6,892,000 iPhones 3Gs. Apple’s iPhone 3G sales of almost 6.9 million units eclipsed RIM’s BlackBerry sales of 6.1 million units in the third calendar-quarter of 2008.
“Apple outsold RIM last quarter, and this is a milestone for us. RIM is a good company that makes good products, and so it is surprising that we could outsell them in any quarter after only 15 months in the market,” said Steve Jobs.
Not only has Apple managed to outpace Waterloo in terms of sales numbers, the smartphone newcomer from Cupertino has managed to place itself in the No. 3 position among global mobile phone vendors, in terms of revenue. With iPhone-related revenue hitting $4.6 billion for Q3 2008, Apple became the third-largest mobile phone vendor, behind the pack-leader Nokia (NYSE: NOK) and runner-up Samsung. Apple leads Sony Ericsson (NYSE: SNE), LG, Motorola (NYSE: MOT), and RIM in mobile phone revenue.
With brisk iPhone 3G sales in Q3 2008, Apple has already surpassed its self-imposed goal of selling 10 million iPhones (including both iPhone and iPhone 3G variants) in the 2008 calendar year. And, with Apple preparing for the holiday shopping season by allowing customers to purchase and setup their iPhone 3G online, Q4 2008 sales will boost Apple’s mobile phone revenue ever more significantly. It seem the new kid on the mobile-block is poised to make a powerful statement.
As for whether or not we can expect to see more iPhone variants hitting different form-factors and price-points, Jobs said, “From what I’ve heard, Babe Ruth had only one home run. He just kept hitting it over and over again.”
“Not bad for being in the market for only 15 months,” says Steve Jobs.
[Via: Macworld]
For the record, a lot of people were talking about this at the BlackBerry Developer Conference. I wouldn’t say they were worried, but they certainly weren’t dismissive.
Unfortunately Apple has painted themselves into a corner with regards to future handset sales.
By kowtowing to the carriers they’ll see very disappointing sales should they release a new iPhone before everyone’s 2 to 3 year contacts are up!
You make a good point. There are going to be a lot of iPhone users tied up in multi-year contracts. But, remember, Apple worked out an upgrade deal for iPhone customers looking to upgrade to the iPhone 3G. There’s also room to grab the portion of the market that hasn’t yet jumped on the iPhone bandwagon.
We’ll see what Apple does and how the market reacts in 2009-2010 (hopefully!).