Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has sold its 500 millionth iPhone somewhere silently. The milestone is achieved in less than seven years after the company sold its first iPhone in June 20017, according to Forbes. For reaching the 100 million mark, Apple took almost four years, but the 200 million targets was achieved a year later. 300 millionth iPhone was sold ten months later followed by 400 million eight months later.
Changing fortunes
Around March 8, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) sold the 500 millionth iPhone, based on the consensus estimate. At the end of the first quarter of 2014, the Cupertino based firm has sold 472 million iPhones.
At the time of launching iPhone in 2007, Steve Jobs set the target of 10 million iPhone for 2008. Many doubted the numbers, including Edward Snyder, an analyst at Charter Equity Research, who said, in March that year, “They’re going to have a difficult time” making it. The analyst pointed that Nokia sold more phones in a week than Apple at that point of time. Then came the next quarter, Apple posted its worst ever show by selling just 717,000 iPhone. Now, Apple sells this number of iPhone every two days, and compared to Nokia, the Cupertino based company sold more iPhone last quarter than the number of Lumias ever sold. Coming back to the story, in 2008, Apple exceeded the target by selling 13.7 million iPhone.
Apple looks set for next milestone
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) looks all set for the next milestones. With numerous speculation of a larger screen iPhone 6 later this year, a significant number of upgrades can be expected. Also, users who postponed the purchase of iPhone to wait for a bigger screen will also add to the numbers. Apart from the iPhone 6, the re-launch of iPhone 4 and a less expensive iPhone 5c will also boost the iPhone sale numbers, and would also help Apple to compete on the basis of pricing.
Most of the rumors suggest that Apple would come out with the next iPhone in September while some believe a launch in summer. The launch date won’t make much difference as the 600 millionth iPhone mark is expected to come close to the year end.
