Behind the iPhone's big weekend
Monday, June 28, 2010 at 9:12AM 
Apple has announced they have sold 1.7 million units of the iPhone 4 over the weekend. Oh, and that didn't include Sunday sales. Remember, it took 80 days for the iPad to get to sales of three million, and reports indicate the iPhone 3GS had sales of just about one million in the same amount of time it has taken the iPhone 4 to reach the 1.7million mark.
What's going on here? Many sites have attributed the increase to iPhone upgraders: first and second-generation iPhone owners making the upgrade. My observations indicate something bigger is at work here, and it has happened before.
When the iPod launched, it had modest success at first. Sure Apple fans thought it was a great design, but the price point and Mac-only compatibility kept growth in check. By the the time the third-generation iPod rolled around, people who had never purchased an Apple product before were lining up. What happened, from what I could tell working the front lines of an Apple Store in those days, was the iPod crossed over from the world of early adopters, and into the hands of everyday consumers.
In the lead up to the iPhone 4 release, I noticed many of my less tech-savvy friends were talking about the phone on facebook, twitter etc. People I thought would never buy an iPhone, heck some who had never bought an iPod, were looking forward to this launch. Why now? Why is this the iPhone to make the leap to a more mainstream audience? When the iPhone originally launched, it was a smart phone. Not only that, it was one of the "smartest" smart phones: many of the features, like internet and email on the go, seemed like needless luxuries to a large portion of phone-buying consumers. Fast forward to 2010, and many more phones offer a mobile internet experience. Sure on the surface this means more competition for Apple, but for the average consumer, it helps to sell these features as a standard part of a phone today. And if you're going to get a "standard" phone, you might as well get the one your friends have been talking about over the last few years.
iPhone sales were by no means slow over the last few years, but it looks like iPhone 4 has reached a tipping point. Let's hope AT&T is ready for the onslaught of new smartphone customers.
Reader Comments (1)
I like how you used the word just in the sentence - "the iPhone 3GS had sales of just about one million". Just! Haha onlu just 1 million. Poor little guy! I don´t understand the phenonomen either, but it obviously has something to do with 'being in'. These days its kind of an embarrassment to pull out an nokia no? Its peer pressure, and apple are feeding off of us like vultures!