If you bought an iPhone in the last three months, it’s possible it was the three billionth sold.
The brand announced this major sales milestone during its latest earnings call. During the quarter, “we shipped the 3 billionth iPhone since its launch in 2007,” said Suhasini Chandramouli, director of investor relations.
Samsung is thought to have hit the 3 billion mark last year. A mid-2024 report using IDC data said Samsung sold 2.93 billion phones between Q1 2014 and Q1 2024. However, that didn’t take into account sales of the first four generations of the Galaxy S series, or Samsung’s handsets sold before its Galaxy range began in 2010.
It also doesn’t include Samsung phones sold in the last 18 months. Samsung recently said the Galaxy Z Fold 7 had the highest number of preorders ever in the US for one of its Fold-branded phones, and it reports a 25% rise in preorders across these devices compared with the previous generation.
Nokia might have also met this target before Apple, but not with smartphones. The Nokia 1100 alone sold 250 million units worldwide, and the Nokia 1110 sold another 248 million. Nokia never released overall sales figures, so it’s unclear if the brand ever reached 3 billion.
We do know that Nokia sold its billionth handset in 2005. The brand continued until 2013, when it became part of Microsoft and then moved under the HMD Global brand, so it may have hit that 3 billion number without any fanfare.
If so, Samsung and Apple are the only two brands to top 3 billion in sales from smartphones alone. Apple also has far fewer devices than Samsung, which has had hundreds of variants, compared with the 47 models from Apple to date.
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Apple marked the anniversary of its billionth phone sale in July 2016. It then took the brand nine years to gain another 2 billion shipments.
In Apple’s earnings report, CEO Tim Cook said the brand is in the process of “significantly” increasing its investment in AI. Amid a lackluster response to Apple Intelligence, the company is considering purchasing other AI companies to help it get ahead of its rivals.
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About James Peckham
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