Apple iPhone Tops July Phone Sales

You can make fun of the iJerk, but it’s hard to knock him. Case in point: Apple's iPhone was the leading smartphone during the month of July, and sales equaled the leading "feature phone,' the LG Chocolate, according to a sales survey released Tuesday.

Market researcher iSuppli also published an aggressive sales prediction for the iPhone: 4.5 million units for the year. The firm also predicted that the iPhone, or some successor, would sell 30 million units in 2011, based on "consumer demand, Apple's brand image, industry anticipation and iSuppli's estimates of volume shipments by manufacturers and the market segment," the firm said.

According to iSuppli, 1.8 percent of all phones during July were iPhones, a significant figure in what is an extremely fractured market. The iPhone launched on June 29, with several hundred thousand units sold within the first few days.

To date, no comprehensive figures have been released for the iPhone. Apple reported its second-quarter results on July 14, but those numbers included sales up through June 26, before the iPhone launched. Apple's second-quarter results should be announced in October.

iSuppli's U.S. Consumer Panel Survey, conducted online, said that the two models of the iPhone outsold all smartphones in July, including the Blackberry series, all of Palm's phones, and any individual Motorola, Nokia, Samsung or other smartphone model. Sales totals matched the top-selling "feature phone," the LG Chocolate. iSuppli said that the iPhone straddles the feature phone and smart phone category; the firm defines the latter category as one where new software can be loaded onto the device, which can't actually be done with the iPhone. Only Web-based apps may be launched.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2178898,00.asp