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1 Million 3G iPhones Sold

Posted on: Tuesday, 15 July 2008, 00:05 CDT

In just three days, Apple sold 1 million 3G iPhones after its launch in the United States, Hong Kong and 20 other countries, the company said Monday.

The Cupertino company also said more than 10 million applications were downloaded from its newly opened App Store for the iPhone and iPod touch. Independent developers have created mobile applications that range from games to location-based social networking. More than 800 applications are available through the App Store. More than 200 are free and the rest cost less than $10 each.

On Friday, iPhone consumers, including some who waited outside Apple stores overnight, were frustrated when the company's iTunes server was overwhelmed by a global crush of requests from new iPhone users and those updating the software for the older version of the iPhone and the iPod touch. The over-burdened system prevented some phones from immediately being fully activated.

The glitch, though, didn't appear to dampen desire for the new iPhone, which runs on a faster network so users can fully experience the device's forte -- full Web browsing.

Chief Executive Steve Jobs noted in a statement that it took 74 days to sell the first 1 million original iPhones.

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster said Apple's sales blew by his three-day estimate of 425,000. He credited strong consumer interest overseas with helping the Cupertino company post a million sales by Sunday.

"Global demand for the iPhone

is better than expected," he said in a note today to investors. "This trend will likely continue as Apple rolls out an additional 58 countries in the next several months. In addition, we expect Apple will sell phones in China and Russia by year end."

Apple said the iPhone will go on sale in France on Thursday.

Munster, who expects the company to sell 45 million iPhones in 2009, said the only potential hitch is whether production can keep pace with demand.

Source: San Jose Mercury News

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