Apple chose not to mark the 500 million iPhones sold miletone earlier this month

Unit volume and market share “matter,” yet profit is king and Apple is the god of profit. Little wonder then that Apple chose not to mark the 500 million iPhones sold miletone earlier this month.

While there is certainly a quality to Android’s quantity, billions of activations (give or take a few hundred million), when it comes to user engagement, and that means profit spelled i-P-h-o-n-e, Apple is still far and away the biggest game in town.

Fortune reports that, likely on or about March 8, Apple surpassed a significant milestone — 500 million iPhones sold:

The consensus would have placed the milestone sale around March 8 given that entering the quarter Apple had sold 472 million iPhones. So even if it proves a bit high as it did last quarter, we’ve crossed the point where it’s safe to assume that Apple has sold 500 million smartphones in less than 7 years. And the most recent 100 million took somewhere between 2-6 weeks less than the previous 100 million did.

When the iPhone hit store shelves in 2007, there were four leading players — Palm, RIM, Microsoft and Nokia — in what was then considered the smartphone market.

iPhones Sold: Steve Delivered the Future


None of those pre-iPhone products are remembered now as smartphones. For one time market leader Palm, matters are worse still. The company that humbled Apple and its Newton now lies forgotten in an open source grave.

Blackberry (nee RIM), Nokia and Microsoft have fared little better in the new world order, each having endured their own failed comebacks.

Even with all of that carnage, few but the vanquished would wish to return to a pre-iPhone and, for that matter, pre-Android world.

Whether you knew it or not, there have been 500 million iPhones sold and all our lives, iPhone lovers and haters alike, have improved greatly for the better as a result…

What’s your take

Via MacRumors