Apple closing in on its 2 billionth iPhone sale

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iPhones at MacPaw museum
Apple sure has sold a lot of iPhones over the years.
Photo: MacPaw

Apple will sell its 2 billionth iPhone in 2020 or 2021, a poll of analysts suggests.

They suggest that Apple will sell close to 195 million iPhones in fiscal 2020. That would bring the total number of iPhones sold since launch to around 1.9 billion units. Provided that they are talking about Apple’s fiscal 2020, which ends in September, that could conceivably mean pushing past the 2 billion milestone this calendar year.

Apple passed the 1 billion iPhones sold mark in 2016. That was just under a decade since the iPhone first went on sale. While iPhone sales aren’t what they were in the peak years, they are up considerably from the first few years of the iPhone. That means that the 2 billion units mark shouldn’t take as long.

When Apple passed the previous milestone Tim Cook posted the following message on Apple’s website:

“iPhone has become one of the most important, world-changing and successful products in history. It’s become more than a constant companion. iPhone is truly an essential part of our daily life and enables much of what we do throughout the day.”

Reaching the 2 billion milestone

Needless to say, the 2 billion figure would represent a combination of every iPhone model ever sold. The most popular generation of iPhone was the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. Since debuting in 2014, they have sold upward of 222 million handsets combined. Of the two, the iPhone 6 has sold more — although Apple hasn’t broken down an exact share.

Overall, the most popular single model of cellphone of all time is Nokia’s Nokia 110. It sold approximately 250 million+ units.

At Apple’s “Gather Round” event in late 2018, Tim Cook said that Apple was “about to ship our 2 billionth iOS device.” However, this also included iPads, which sell at a rate of approximately 1 for every 4.9 iPhones.

Selling 2 billion iPhones would be a massive achievement for Apple. Given how much excitement exists around this year’s upgrade — which will be the first 5G iPhones on the market — it will be interesting to see how quickly Apple can reach that landmark.

Source: BNN Bloomberg

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