iPhone outsells rivals in US

05-09-2007

by Charlie Taylor

Apple's new iPhone outsold all other smartphones available in the US in July, according to new figures from market research firm iSuppli.

During its first full month of sales, the Apple iPhone -- which launched to plenty of fanfare in June -- accounted for 1.8 percent of total mobile handset sales in the US, dwarfing shipments from other smartphone manufacturers such as Palm and RIM, the firm behind the Blackberry series.

According to iSuppli, between 200,000 and 240,000 consumers purchased iPhones during the month, with the majority of buyers being young, educated men.

Overall, sales of the iPhone were tied with LG's Chocolate, the top-selling 'feature phone'. iSuppli classifies the iPhone as a 'crossover phone', with attributes that put it in competition both with smartphones and feature phones. iSuppli defines feature phones as handsets that have rich functionality.

"While iSuppli has not collected historical information on this topic, it's likely that the speed of the iPhone's rise to competitive dominance in its segment is unprecedented in the history of the mobile handset market," iSuppli said.

iSuppli is now predicting that Apple will ship 4.5 million iPhones during 2007 and that this will have risen to more than 30 million in 2011. Apple has played down such expectations, however, predicting it will ship 10 million units globally by 2008.

The iPhone is due to go on sale in Europe and in other markets later this year.

Meanwhile, Apple is expected to unveil a new batch of iPods on Wednesday.