Days to 1 million: the smartphone wars
By Thomas Ricker 
posted January 29th 2009 6:45AM
posted January 29th 2009 6:45AM
[Thanks, Noel F.]
posted January 29th 2009 6:45AM
Apple iPhone 3G
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It's printed in big red. It read: U.S-only, does not include global sales data.
It's printed in big red. It read: U.S-only, does not include global sales data. (2nd attempt for the reply to go to the right post, by neon_tiger )
Errr G1 was sold in the UK as well as the US you know...
Err...25 countries? The original iPhone was available in 6 countries.
Dude: clean out the carb occasionally. Maybe it'll cut down on randomly throwing out numbers that aren't pulled from your ass.
And not only that... If I remember correctly, the G1 was only available in "3G Markets" for the majority of that time, up until just recently. So that's definitely saying something.
Seriously. This irks me, after Engadget did a really great, objective job on their Patent story (iphone vs. pre), they follow it up with this piece of junk data? Junk data in, junk data out. This chart literally tells us nothing.
you do see the bold red type that says US only, right?
The Blackberry Storm data is inaccurate - the 1 million sold figure was released by Verizon Wireless, which means that it only represents devices sold in the U.S. market and not Europe on Vodafone. So this really is an apples to apples comparison between the G1, Storm and Iphone (non 3G) as all three numbers represent U.S. only sales of a first-gen device.
I'd be curious what the total sales figures for the Storm were globally. Also when considering U.S. sales you have to factor in the network on which a device is sold, at first glance the G1's performance seems even more impressive because of the smaller subscriber base and network on which it was released, but the difference in smartphone lineups could also have played a factor.
Actually, I was replying to neon_tiger but the reply went to the post below it- figured it'd be better not to double post
I love the iPhone and all, but really, since when has a graph containing old and easily accessible information considered news?
wow,its official. the electronic consumer masses have spoken, n cast their vote. they chose to trust apple quality/innovation/reputation. indeed this is technological history we are witnessing, we should all feel lucky. when an imperfect cell came out,with no mms,video cam etc, but yet the imperfect one or underdog was awarded the coveted title. iphone went from being a verizon reject,att nourished n brought it to become the ultimate gladiator story;from slave to king. i was wrong,i said $600 cell will tank here in the usa on a 2 year contract.i also thought jobs was full of bs,when he said "it will revolutionize".i ate my words. ok bring on the hate mail iphone haters.........i have silenced all.,
N95 is the most sold smartphone in the world by a friggin' huge margin.. oh and iPhone is not a smartphone because it doesn't have multitasking. If you'd include Nokia dumbphones on that chart you'd have a winrar..
Actually, the iPhone can in fact multitask. You can listen to music while doing anything else you want, and don't say it doesn't count as multitasking. These figures look good to your apple fan, then the smart people look and realise, the only phone there with the same sort of release as the iPhone was the Nokia 5800. Another thing to note is, the 5800 did well, without all the hype.
Has no multitasking? It does!
It is just not available to other developers.
"you'd have a winrar."
I prefer 7-zip
Did you actually read the article? Go back and try again--has nothing to do with total sales rather is identifying how long it took to sell 1 million units. I'm sure the N95 has highest total sales but considering it's been out the longest and is most widely available, this isn't really a surprise, is it?
Indeed, on my n95 I often have Google mail, mobbler, web browser and fring open in the background, plus whatever other apps that I am using at the time. I think that the iphone is more powerful performance wise, so technically it should have no problems running multiple applications. Thickie question, but did apple intend to have user installable apps when they launched it? This could explain why the iphone won't do it, maybe they were afraid of people jailbreaking to install apps?
Its funny because iphone 3g sold 1 million the first weekend, then in the next months its sold only 2 million more (around), or you could say:
iphone 3g 3 million unit sold x 6 months = 0.5 million x month.
Blackberry storm sold around 0.5 million x month (the first month)
Nokia 5800 TOO sold too 0.5 million x month (5800 has sold 1 million and was launched 2 months ago)
So do you get the pattern?.
IMHO the amount of unit sold ALSO depend in how quick you can product this amount of units and how quick you can put on the shelves, 0.5 million x month sound a magic number.
BUT, the trouble with Apple is Iphone 3g (and iphone 2g ) are the only products they sold, Blackberry and Nokia sold over 10 different kind of cellphone.
It's not the Apple fanboy syndrome that sold the iPhone 3G it's the fact that the device was offered at an affordable $199 for the 8GB model and $299 for the 16GB model with 3G included. A very different picture in terms of the original iPhone which was $499+ and no 3G, as well as the expensive plans that AT&T was selling with it. But as of now, the original iPhone is a very valuable phone and pretty much sought out because of it's unlocking capabilities which the 3G seems to struggle against.
Graphic and comparison are somewhat irrelevant if not put in relation to the size of the markets that was addressed during that period.
This is pointed by the author of the post... who says iphone is for 21 countries.. when G1 is only for US.
Why not put a graphic that shows either :
- same graphic but indicating the total size of the markets in which it was launched
- or a graphic with a penetration speed... with curves :) (iphone 3G reached 0.1% market share where distributed in xx days, etc)
Or else that all seems so partial (agaaaaain).
1 million sold for the Storm eh? How about a graph to show how many were returned back.
Popularity doesn't mean quality.
That's true! Remember that pretty cheerleader in high school? 10 years later she's working at the grocery store in the same town you grew up in, with four kids and a smoking habit she can't quit.
Maybe that was just my high school reunion experience.
The iPhone is definitely the cheerleader of the cellphone world. Yeah, it's pretty, and it's easy, and shallow people are jealous when you have one. And all the popular kids have one. But it lacks the kind of substance to make it worth it in the long run.
who cares how much it sold in a weekend? i'd think how much it sold overall is much more important if you want to make a comparison of market penetration.
the iphone a smartphone? i don't think so multitasking or not. at least in europe there are 1000 E or N series Nokia smartphones and 500 winmobiles for every iphone 1st gen or 3g. maybe because the iphone is just an ipod that (maybe if you are lucky) you can make calls with and you have to void the guarantee to make it work semi-properly, or maybe it's because of the crappy cam, no mms, no videocalls, pathetic text input and no bluetooth transfer.
whatever the reason the iphone is just an american hipster blogger's sweetheart, in the real world i'd say that nokia is by far the single top player in smartphones with a bunch of others that compete with WinMo offers for the rest.
"whatever the reason the iphone is just an american hipster blogger's sweetheart"
So true. Many of my iPhone 3G owning friends are getting frustrated with the limitations now that they've had it for a while. One jailbroke his and now considers it an "almost smartphone". He was giddy as a school girl about his copy/paste workaround apps. :)
Yeah, a friend of mine (works in marketing) got hers, and she had it for about 6 months. She has recently come to totally hate her phone, and is frustrated with how much she can't do with it. It is particularly entertaining to see the change, since she was SO excited by everything it could do. Ignorance is bliss!
She did upgrade from a Razr though - to which the iPhone was a significant improvement. I think a lot of iPhone users are in that boat.
@: SewerShark
That is not true. You can listen to music while using any application. Unless the application forces sound.
This graph should be based on sales for 1 country at launch. The G1 was initially launched to only people in the US living in T-Mobile's 3G areas which are very far and few between. There are many states that don't have any 3G coverage anywhere yet they were still able to sell that many devices that fast. The iPhone was available at every Apple and AT&T store across the US and in stores in many other countries.
The other statistic that isn't figured in is how well they handled the demand. Apple knew that there would be a huge demand for the iPhone so they made sure that there were that many on the shelf to begin with. There were originally only supposed to be 800,000 G1's made in the first 3 months that it went to market. When it got popular they upped it to a million. I ordered the phone 2 weeks after it came out and it was on back order for a month.
Lamest chart ever. It's so flawed it doesn't even mean anything. What's the point? That you can draw a chart with incomparable numbers to make a certain device look like a winner? Way to go!!
wow,its official. the electronic consumer masses have spoken, n cast their vote. they chose to trust apple quality/innovation/reputation. indeed this is technological history we are witnessing, we should all feel lucky. when an imperfect cell came out,with no mms,video cam etc, but yet the imperfect one or underdog was awarded the coveted title. iphone went from being a verizon reject,att nourished n brought it to become the ultimate gladiator story;from slave to king. i was wrong,i said $600 cell will tank here in the usa on a 2 year contract.i also thought jobs was full of bs,when he said "it will revolutionize".i ate my words. ok bring on the hate mail iphone haters.........i have silenced all.,
Where is she getting these numbers? I can't find any proof there have been a million G1's sold. I can find proof that HTC has said they EXPECT to sell a million...but why the hell would they say otherwise. I can make a crap graph too, but without the figures and proof to back it up, it's meaningless.
This clearly shows why you have to roll out your product, worldwide.
Still no numbers for the Instinct, huh? Welp, see ya later!
Right back at ya Blackberry.
G1 beat you on software quality, price and speed to 1 million units.
Thanks for playing, you won't be getting a consolation prize on your way out to the refurbished department.
this is for the guy who said that u CANNOT send MMS with the iphone.
There is a simple way to do that.
Take phone number 222-444-5555 and add @att.com or whatever carrier you are using and there u have it u can send MMS to the iphone.Simple
Which doesn't work in the UK. Or many other places.
yeah mate. maybe you go around blogs saying that apple stuff "just works". i don't know what this mumbo jumbo number is for, my phone just snaps a foto and forwards it like an sms. and actually i can snap a decent 5mp foto and send it through bluetooth. oh and i can videocall too. all without jailbreaking or installing 3d party apps. in my book that is what just works and you know what? you should demand that stuff from your 600$ phone instead of being proud that your phone sells better than others.
being brainwashed in company is not a smartphone feature.
hmmm did you guys read that chart well.. the apple fanboy haters.. it says it took tll these other phones months to hit 1 mil when it took the iphone 3 days.. the storm is garbage .. that stupid click screen.. i use it and its tedious... texting on that thing has to be the most i hate about it..
Iphone 3 g 30 countries vs storm's US only figures?
Its hardly comparable buddy :P
Don't be stupid. Read the chart again.
Nokia sells 18 phones per second everyday. Nokia FTW!
wow,its official. the electronic consumer masses have spoken, n cast their vote. they chose to trust apple quality/innovation/reputation. indeed this is technological history we are witnessing, we should all feel lucky. when an imperfect cell came out,with no mms,video cam etc, but yet the imperfect one or underdog was awarded the coveted title. iphone went from being a verizon reject,att nourished n brought it to become the ultimate gladiator story;from slave to king. i was wrong,i said $600 cell will tank here in the usa on a 2 year contract.i also thought jobs was full of bs,when he said "it will revolutionize".i ate my words. ok bring on the hate mail iphone haters.........i have silenced all.,
When did the G1 sell 1 million? Does any one have the source for it? I though it was only on track to sell 500k worldwide for 2008.
Good job if it did. With the small carrier, limited launch (3G markets only, UK, US only launch), limited advertising (almost non-existent compared to the Blackberry Storm & iPhone/iPhone 3g advertising, though it got a boost from free media coverage) 1 million isn't too bad if it's true.
The iPhone is not a smartphone. Well, it is, but it doesn't sell in that category. People who buy iPhones now are people who historically bought regular phones and iPods. They're not taking market share away from companies like RIM, who have the business smartphone market pretty much nailed down. They are taking market share away from companies like Motorola, who consistently put out shitty pseudo smartphones and music phones that only succeeded because they were the only things available.
I dont see how this can be right, the Nokia 5800 has not even launched here in the United States?
Hey...
I have about 2 phones (iPhone 3G & G1) on that list so hopefully I wont be seen as biased... but the data may not be as Kosher as it appears on first glance...
Most companies number their sales from when they have left the retail store... and in comparison Apple number their sales from when it leaves its warehouse and not retail stores... that's a big difference in accountancy... your comparing warehouse shipments to retail movements which is stupid... and for the iPhone 3G they did exactly that...
So until the graph above gives specific details at the point they started counting the number of units being shipped... its potentially flawed... so there is no need for arguing over the * for USA only.....
Android is going to take over the whole market.
The iphone sales are significantly slowing down.
CORRECTION: "What it leaves out is the footprint at launch which of course, affects the total population able to purchase the device. For example, the iPhone 3G launched in 21 countries simultaneously whereas the G1 launched in the US only."
The big red lettering on the graph reads "*US Only - Does not include global sales data"
So in fact, it does not leave out the footprint, but instead leaves out global sales so as to make all data sets common. While it would be interesting to see how much faster the 3G sold if you consider global sales figures, this graph does not contain that data as it doesn't hold a valid comparison to the other data on the graph.
OMG!! CAN YOU PPL READ?? The ”US sales only applies to the STORM not the others...sheesh
iPhone 3G's only at the top because the 1st iPhone gave it, its fame. Good old Nokia's still at the top :)