iphone Sales Figures 2009:
and their impact on mobile marketing
Industry Trends: Weds 11th November 2009
With the latest sales figures announced last week, it would seem that Apple's iphone is unstoppable:
- iphone turnover represents 18.5% of Apples sales. Up from 5.7% the previous year
- 57 million iphones and ipodtouches sold in the last two years
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According to a report in Techcrunch, this makes the iphone/ipodtouch the fastest selling gadget of all time, even out stripping the ipod and Wii.
However a closer look at the figures suggests that this isn't quite the case:
- The figures are for both the iphone and ipod touch - one is a phone, the other a media player
- Many of these sales are upgrades to existing models (eg iphone 3G to 3GS). In terms of unique users, the figure is lower
- The Motorola Razr sold more units than the iphone to date: 110 million for one single model. It also sold 50 million units in the first 18 months, making it's sales faster than the iphone/ipodtouch combination
If we look at the current market share for smartphones (Q3 2009), Apple (17.8%) remains third placed behind Nokia (39.7%) and RIM's Blackberry (20.6%). With Motorola launching the much touted Android smartphone, the Droid, it may make a dent into Apple's iphone sales.
So why all the fuss about the iphone?
Although the phone wasn't the first smartphone or even touchphone, it offers a superb user interface in a well-designed handset. It instantly made the iphone the phone for others to aspire to.
However, the most significant and unexpected element of the iphone as the appstore. Not even Steve Jobs expect the response that came with the phone, but it was achieved by creating a seemless connection through itunes, simple billing and an API that allowed developers to go way beyond everyones imagination.
Mobile Marketing on the iphone
Along with the fun apps, games and utilities, brands have found that they can create apps to engage with their users. These range from branded utilities, such as Last Minute's NRU, to customisation and online purchasing from Reebok and Nike. These apps have also proved to be excellent PR vehicles, with many brands creating applications purely for the press opportunity. For more information, see our article on Creating Branded iphone apps
Related Links
Why do brands love the iphone?
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