X

Piper: Apple sold 5 million iPhone 3Gs in quarter

The financial analysts at Piper Jaffray are predicting that Apple will have sold 5 million iPhone 3Gs during its fourth fiscal quarter, which ends this week.

Tom Krazit Former Staff writer, CNET News
Tom Krazit writes about the ever-expanding world of Google, as the most prominent company on the Internet defends its search juggernaut while expanding into nearly anything it thinks possible. He has previously written about Apple, the traditional PC industry, and chip companies. E-mail Tom.
See full bio
Tom Krazit
Piper Jaffray is estimating that Apple will have sold 5 million iPhone 3Gs during the current quarter. Apple

One Apple follower is putting a guess on the number of iPhone 3Gs Apple will have sold during the current quarter: 5 million.

We already know that Apple sold 1 million iPhone 3Gs in the first weekend it went on sale around the world, and Piper Jaffray believes the company has added another 4 million units to that total since then, according to a research note released Monday. Apple will reveal the formal totals in about a month when it reports earnings for its fourth fiscal quarter.

Despite several launch day glitches and widespread bugs in the iPhone's 2.0 software, enthusiasm for the phone seems high. The other big factor this time around, as compared to the iPhone's early days, is the huge increase in the number of countries that are now officially selling the iPhone.

The main number to watch is 10 million: that's the number of iPhones Apple has consistently said is its target for 2008. That number appears easily within reach if the 5 million estimate is accurate: Apple sold around 2.5 million iPhones during the first six months of 2008 as it ran out of the original model.