--- title: "How the Apple iPhone became one of the best-selling products of all time" description: "The Apple iPhone has become one of the best-selling products of all time, with over 2.3 billion units sold and 1.5 billion active users. The introduction of the App Store in 2008 played a significant " type: "news" locale: "en" url: "https://longbridge.com/en/news/106859857.md" published_at: "2024-01-27T16:30:01.000Z" --- # How the Apple iPhone became one of the best-selling products of all time > The Apple iPhone has become one of the best-selling products of all time, with over 2.3 billion units sold and 1.5 billion active users. The introduction of the App Store in 2008 played a significant role in Apple's success, allowing the iPhone to offer more functionality than its competitors. Apple's focus on building an ecosystem and its recent advancements in AI demonstrate its commitment to staying ahead in the smartphone market. When Apple announced the iPhone in 2007, Steve Jobs called it a "revolutionary product" in a handset category that he said needed to be reinvented. Now, nearly two decades and 42 models later, the iPhone is one of the world's most popular phones. Apple has sold over 2.3 billion units of the iPhone and has over 1.5 billion active users, according to research from Demand Sage. The original iPhone was released in June 2007 and exclusively sold with AT&T for $499. The late Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiling the first iPhone in 2007. David Paul Morris | Getty Images News | Getty Images "Investors were optimistic about the impact that it could have with Apple," said Deepwater Asset's Gene Munster. "The initial data that came out from AT&T was a disappointment from that first few days of sales. I remember talking to investors after that first weekend, and the general sense was that this product, in one investor's words, was dead on arrival." Apple sold 1.4 million iPhones in 2007 with 80% of the sales coming in Q4. In the same year Nokia, the maker of the iconic Nokia 3310, sold 7.4 million mobile phones in Q4 alone. "Nokia was seen as unstoppable, unbeatable," said CNBC technology reporter Kif Leswing. JAPAN - FEBRUARY 15: The Nokia 3310 Launched on the 1st September 2000 Science & Society Picture Library | SSPL| Getty Images "The investing community largely took this as something that is going to be a much more difficult market for Apple to really crack," said Munster. Things started to shift for Apple in 2008 when it launched the App Store. This helped spur a new wave of modern tech companies like Uber and put Apple ahead of its competitors. "The App Store allowed your phone to become a lot more," said Munster. "That was the piece, that insight, other phone manufacturers didn't see that coming." Apple saw increased iPhone unit sales in the years following the App Store. The company hit a major milestone — more than 50 million units sold — in 2011, with the help of the iPhone 4s. The company sold 72 million units that year. By 2015, Apple was selling over 200 million iPhone units yearly. "I don't think there's any question the iPhone set the standard that really almost all phones have followed since then," said Computer History Museum's Marc Weber. "The App Store was a huge thing and Android basically followed that model with the Play Store." A decade after the iPhone's release, Apple was the first publicly traded U.S. company to hit a $1 trillion market cap and it's now one of the most profitable companies in the world. Apple recently surpassed Samsung, one of its biggest competitors, as the world's smartphone leader for the first time. According to data from the International Data Corp., Apple holds just over 20% of the global market share, a spot that Samsung held since 2010. "There was a period from 2008 to 2015 where Apple needed to worry about what Samsung was going to do with Android. Their market share was actually declining globally," said Munster. "But, what Apple has been the master at is building the ecosystem. I can't imagine a scenario where Samsung can build a suite of products that is going to disrupt the Apple ecosystem." Recently, Apple has been dabbling in machine learning and AI for the iPhone, but companies such as Microsoft, Google and Open AI have more openly embraced the technology. "AI is going to be critical to humanity, and it's going to be a critical feature inside of iPhones," said Munster. "Apple uses AI to make the products work better with organizing photos, with helping organize emails, and potentially doing things around text organization. But for the most part is that the iPhone doesn't capture, doesn't really capture the full opportunity. Far from it when it comes to AI." Watch the video to learn more about how the iPhone shaped Apple. ### Related Stocks - [AAPL.US - Apple](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/AAPL.US.md) - [02008.HK - PHOENIX TV](https://longbridge.com/en/quote/02008.HK.md) ## Related News & Research | Title | Description | URL | |-------|-------------|-----| | 股神巴菲特再現「神準」操作 亞馬遜急跌前大減倉 再沽蘋果美銀 買入一隻媒體股 | 股神巴菲特在卸任巴郡 CEO 後，繼續調整投資組合。根據 SEC 13F 文件，巴郡大幅減持亞馬遜 770 萬股，持倉減少 77%；同時出售約 5,080 萬股美國銀行和 1,030 萬股蘋果，連續第三季減持蘋果。巴郡首次增持傳統媒體股，購 | [Link](https://longbridge.com/en/news/276191227.md) | | “硬件防禦” 對沖 AI 焦慮，蘋果與納指相關性創 20 年新低 | AI 浪潮下，蘋果因未深度捲入軍備競賽，與納指相關性創 20 年新低，成為科技股動盪中的 “避風港”。在 AI 投資回報存疑及軟件業面臨顛覆的焦慮中，蘋果憑藉不易受衝擊的硬件生態逆勢突圍。儘管存在估值偏高及增長放緩壓力，其獨特的 “AI 中 | [Link](https://longbridge.com/en/news/276301841.md) | | 蘋果加速研發 AI 眼鏡、掛飾及攝像頭版 AirPods | 作為向人工智能驅動硬件轉型的一部分，蘋果公司正加速開發三款新型可穿戴設備，包括智能眼鏡、一款掛飾設備以及具備擴展 AI 功能的 AirPods。這些設備將圍繞 Siri 數字助理構建，並依靠具備不同功能的攝像頭系統，根據視覺語境執行操作。蘋 | [Link](https://longbridge.com/en/news/276167877.md) | | IronBridge Private Wealth LLC 持有蘋果公司價值 905,000 美元的股份 | IronBridge Private Wealth LLC 在第三季度將其在蘋果公司（NASDAQ:AAPL）的持股減少了 77.3%，目前持有 3,555 股，價值 905,000 美元。其他機構投資者，包括先鋒集團和道富銀行，已增加了在 | [Link](https://longbridge.com/en/news/276436345.md) | | Rossmore Private Capital 提升了其在蘋果公司 $AAPL 的頭寸 | Rossmore Private Capital 在第三季度將其在蘋果公司（NASDAQ:AAPL）的持股增加了 1.1%，目前持有 204,242 股，市值為 5200 萬美元。其他對沖基金也增加了他們的持股，Sellwood Inves | [Link](https://longbridge.com/en/news/276436349.md) | --- > **Disclaimer**: This article is for reference only and does not constitute any investment advice.