News

Apple sells 1m iPhone 3GS handsets in first weekend

And six million people have downloaded the 3.0 software

Apple sells 1m iPhone 3GS handsets in first weekend
Apple has announced that it sold more than one million iPhone 3GS handsets in its first weekend on sale.

Equally important for developers is the news that six million iPhone owners have downloaded the iPhone 3.0 software update since its release last Wednesday.

However, with 20 million iPhones and iPhone 3Gs having been sold in the last couple of years, that means the majority of them have yet to be updated.

"Customers are voting and the iPhone is winning,” says Apple CEO Steve Jobs. “With over 50,000 applications available from Apple’s revolutionary App Store, iPhone momentum is stronger than ever.”

Jobs's appearance in the press release fuels reports that he's on track to return to work this month, incidentally.

Other news: it's not a typo in the headline - the new device is the iPhone 3GS, not the 3G S as previously thought. (Now you tell me - ed). Apple's websites have been referring to it as the latter, but the latest press release ditches the space.

A survey by Piper Jaffray claims that 12 per cent of iPhone 3GS buyers this weekend were ditching a BlackBerry to do so, while 56 per cent were upgrading from an earlier iPhone.

43 per cent of respondents opted for the 32GB model while 57 per cent went for the 16GB one.

Bizarrely, 66 per cent of iPhone 3GS buyers own Macs rather than PCs according to Piper Jaffray's survey, although its decision to only question buyers at Apple Stores may have something to do with that.

More research: NPD Group has been asking US consumers why they DON'T buy iPhones. Among those who don't want to, the main reason (57 per cent) is "lack of interest", while 42 per cent cite its "high price".

Meanwhile, among people who do want to buy an iPhone but don't, one in five said it was because of the cost of the data plan, or because they didn't want to switch to AT&T Wireless.

Finally, yet more research from Crowd Science - we suspect one million clipboards were sold this weekend too - claims that 38 per cent of non-iPhone smartphone owners say they'll probably switch to Apple next time round.

Contributing Editor

Stuart is a freelance journalist and blogger who's been getting paid to write stuff since 1998. In that time, he's focused on topics ranging from Sega's Dreamcast console to robots. That's what you call versatility. (Or a short attention span.)