El Segundo, Calif. — The iPhone outsold every other individual smartphone in July after only a month on the market, and the hybrid iPod/cellphone tied with LG’s Chocolate as the top-selling feature phone that month, an iSuppli consumer survey found.
The iPhone’s trajectory to the top of the unit-sales heap tends to confirm iSuppli’s forecast of 4.5 million iPhones shipping in 2007, rising to more than 30 million units in 2011, the company contended.
In July, the iPhone accounted for 1.8 percent of all mobile-handset unit sales to U.S. consumers, iSuppli said. Most iPhone purchasers in July were male, 35 years of age or less, and had a four-year college degree, the company noted.
iSuppli’s survey is conducted on-line every month with a continually refreshed panel of more than 2 million participants in the United States.
Although the iPhone is not a smartphone, the iPhone has crossover attributes “that put it in competition both with smart phones and with feature phones,” the company said in justifying the comparison of iPhone sales to sales of smartphones and feature phone. “While the iPhone has some features associated with smartphones, users cannot load third-party software onto the product, which is a key requirement to qualify for smartphone status,” the company noted. “iSuppli defines feature phones as handsets that have rich functionality.”
The company called Apple’s success “a remarkable accomplishment” and contended that “it’s likely that the speed of the iPhone’s rise to competitive dominance in its segment is unprecedented in the history of the mobile-handset market.”
iSuppli called it “equally amazing that Apple achieved this in the face of numerous, well-entrenched competitors.” Pent-up demand following months of hype contributed to the sales gain, iSuppli admitted, and “real proof of success will come in the coming months as demand patterns stabilize.”
The survey also uncovered these facts about iPhone buyers:
About 57 percent of iPhones bought in July were purchased by people 35 years of age or younger.
- Fifty-two percent of buyers were male.
- Sixty-two percent of buyers had at least a four-college degree.
- One-quarter of purchasers switched to AT&T service.
