Today during Apple’s Q1 earnings call with investors, CEO Tim Cook announced that the company sold its billionth iOS device back in November.
Cook noted that the billionth device was a 64GB iPhone 6 Plus and that the company is keeping it at its headquarters in honor of the milestone.
The news comes as Apple beats expectations and reports record smartphone sales today with 74.4 million iPhone units sold during the holiday quarter.
Apple Marketing VP Phil Schiller also joined in on celebrating the milestone:
[tweet https://twitter.com/pschiller/status/560197288048340992]
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Well done, I will have to go back and look at how many I have bought over the years!!
Bought my first MAC in 1992….Going strong ever since!!
This is iOS devices though, not general Apple devices. It’s even more impressive as iOS has only been available since mid 2007 and the devices are premium priced.
$0 with a contract is not what most people consider “premium priced”. Sure it will cost a lot in the long run, but the initial buy in is essentially free for iPhone and not much worse for everything else.
Damn impressive still.
There’s a bigger world outside of the U.S. In Ireland, the iPhone 6 stars at €699. That’s expensive trust me. Same as most of Europe, where a lot of people buy out of contract.
There’s a bigger world outside of Ireland. To get my 5S in Japan all I had to do was pay the first month of my contract. That’s the norm, I’m sorry that your country doesn’t offer that option.
How did they find this device? One person buys it and they hunt them down for it? Or do they stop sales at 1-less of 1 billion so they can purchase the 1 billionth device? Hard to understand.
Same
I’m guessing they’re going by activation, which they would be able to precisely determine.
Some poor SOB is still waiting for his phone ;-)
Because Apple sells (to an actual customer) virtually every device it makes, they’re probably calling the 1 billionth device manufactured the 1 billionth device “sold”.
But… but… but Google activates at least that many Android devices every week. By now, there has to be at least five Android devices for every man, woman and child on this rapidly shrinking planet.
Interestingly, Google reports that there are only 1 billion ACTIVE Android users while Apple reports there were 875 million ACTIVE iTunes/App Store users back in September last year. Since then, Apple has sold 263 million more iOS devices…
Well, let’s look at your statement a little more carefully.
1. Android platform now has about 60 different companies making products.
2. There are OEMs that make their products for Private Label companies so those products are double reported, so the REAL number of Android devices sold is kind of misleading since the OEM mfg reports it as sold (to the Private Label) and then the Private Label reports it being sold to the customer/reseller.
3. The average price of an Android device is probably half.
4. 60% of the Android devices don’t run the latest OS, since the OEM won’t release an update, so 60% of the Android phones are outdated products so old, they are just $50 phones. And you can STILL find older Gingerbread through Jelly Bean phones on the market.
5. Since Android phones get less years of updates, many Android buyers buy more phones than a typical iOS smartphone.
6. The most important aspect in terms of from the Corporations/Shareholders standpoint. Apple actually retains about 23+% Net Profit to Gross Revenues. The average Android smartphone maker BARELY makes a profit, if at all. So, just to look at the top mfg, Apple RETAINS as much profits as Google, Samsung, LG, Xiaomi, and the top 4+ Android mfg COMBINED. Retained profits is what is ultimately the most important thing as a judge of how PROFITABLE a company is.
FYI, Google hasn’t been activating more Android phones per week. Over the last quarter, I believe Apple has about the same number of activations than Android.
Rapidly shrinking planet? Really? How is that done? There are more people each year than the previous year. The number of people currently is over 7 Billion. About 3 Billion of that lives in extreme poverty.
Hey, I just stumbled on this article. It’s about a 1+ years old, but it’s still a crack up.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertlenzner/2014/01/17/how-a-500-million-fine-paid-by-google-for-selling-illegal-drugs-on-the-web-is-used-for-retiremernt-benefits-rhode-island-police/
Is 1 billion iOS device SHIPPED. Not sold. And Tim said they have the device in their possession. It is a Space Grey iPhone 6 plus 64GB.
Bong! That was 1 Billion iOS devices back in November.
Add in the blockbuster December sales (not to mention January) and the fact that Apple was unable to meet demand till now (meaning there was no excess inventory – i.e. all devices shipped were sold) and it is patently obvious Apple has indeed SOLD well over 1 Billion iOS devices.
Apple is now selling a quarter of a billion iOS devices per year so not sure what your point is? (unless you’re missing the /s on the end of your comment?
I know. But I meant to reply to the first post asking how Apple would know who purchased the device and that the person that bought it is waiting for the device. But apparently they didn’t read the article.
Woah. Something to brag about now, especially for devs :)