Apple announced Monday that it has sold more than 1 million iPhone 3GS models since they went on sale Friday, June 19, 2009.
The announcement also garnered the first public comment from Apple CEO Steve Jobs in a while. Jobs has been on a leave of absence since January to deal with lingering health issues.
“Customers are voting and the iPhone is winning. With over 50,000 applications available from Apple’s revolutionary App Store, iPhone momentum is stronger than ever,” said Jobs in a statement.
The figure exceeds Apple’s sales of the iPhone 3GS’s predecessor, the iPhone 3G, during its opening weekend in July, 2008. It’s likely good news for Apple on Wall Street. Some analysts had predicted that Apple would sell fewer iPhone 3GS models, with estimates ranging from 500,000 to 750,000.
The iPhone 3GS, introduced at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) in early June, sports new features including video recording capability, voice control and a built-in compass. It also launches applications faster than the 3G. AT&T’s byzantine upgrade pricing structure for the phone has led to an onslaught of complaints from existing customers, but that didn’t stop AT&T and Best Buy from selling out of pre-order allotments before the phone’s release.
Apple also noted that the iPhone 3.0 software released on June 17th has been downloaded by 6 million customers.