Update: Apple Has Sold 1 Billion iPhones
Update (July 27): Apple has confirmed that 1 billion iPhones have been sold.
The iPhone may soon hit an important milestone. According to a new report from The Financial Times, Apple may sell its billionth iPhone as early as this week.
Billion with a "B"
Here’s more from the report:
With analysts expecting at least another 40m units to be sold in the present quarter, or 13m a month in aggregate, the billionth iPhone could be sold as soon as this week, if it has not happened already.
“A billion is the new million,” said Benedict Evans, partner at venture firm Andreessen Horowitz, in a nod to the handful of internet services, including Facebook and WhatsApp Messenger, that can claim a 10-figure audience.
Interestingly, even though the first iPhone was introduced in 2007, sales will have jumped from 500 million to 1 billion in the past two years.
Where next?
The milestone also comes as iPhone sales have been somewhat slowing.
During the second quarter of fiscal year 2016, Apple sold 51.2 million handsets, compared to 61.2 million iPhones in the same quarter in 2015. That led to the first quarterly drop in revenue for the company since 2003.
Apple’s third quarter results are slated to be announced tomorrow, and many analysts are also predicting another drop in iPhone sales compared to the same time frame in 2015.
Slated to be unveiled sometime in September, the next-generation iPhone will offer a similar form factor to the iPhone 6s/6s Plus. Apple is widely expected to remove the ubiquitous 3.5mm headphone jack on the device. In its place, users would need Bluetooth or Lightning headphones.
The larger model is also expected to feature a dual-lens camera. It could possibly feature some type of optical zoom. One lens could support a wide field of view while the other might feature telephoto technology. Independent images are captured from both lenses which are then combined into a single photo using special algorithms.
