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- Dubai 05:07 06:20 12:29 15:54 18:33 19:47
Apple has sold over 1 billion iPhones since first introducing the device in 2007, the company said in an announcement on Wednesday.
The announcement comes a day after it revealed its third quarter results, which indicated falling iPhone sales compared to previous years.
The company said it had sold only 40.4 million iPhones during the last quarter compared to 48 million during the same time last year.
The second quarter results too indicated a similar drop in iPhone sales compared to the previous year, providing a clear indication that the iPhone phenomenon could be nearing its end.
Meanwhile, at an employee meeting in Cupertino this morning, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced that Apple had recently sold the billionth iPhone.
"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," said Cook.
“Last week we passed another major milestone when we sold the billionth iPhone. We never set out to make the most, but we’ve always set out to make the best products that make a difference. Thank you to everyone at Apple for helping change the world every day," he added.
Apple which introduced the iPhone Se earlier this year said the 4.7 inch device had added new iPhone customers who migrated from other smartphone brands.
Talking during a conference call with analysts on Tuesday Cook said Apple had a clear strategy when it added the iPhone Se and with the launch of the new model, and the launch had seen demand outstripping supply. "That strategy is working is working.
iPhone Se is popular both in developed and emerging markets. Overall we added millions of first time smartphone buyers in the June quarter and switchers accounted for the highest percentage of quarterly iPhone sales we ever measured. In absolute terms or year to date iPhone sales, switchers are the greatest we have seen in any nine month period," he added.
However, Cook also said iPhone users are not upgrading their devices to the latest iPhone 6s as they used to do earlier with the latest models. "Maybe that was a predictable thing, although we didn't predict it in the beginning,"
It should be noted that the iPhone 6S had no significant upgraded features compared to the iPhone 6. Apple plans to release the iPhone7 in October.
Worldwide, only Samsung sells more smart phones than Apple. Throughout 2015, Samsung sold close to 320 million phones, compared to Apple's 231.5 million, according to data from Strategy Analytics.
Apple also competes with a number of other Android handset manufacturers. Google said a year ago that Android was being used by 1.3 billion users every single month. Perhaps in anticipation of these comparisons, Cook said: "We never set out to make the most, but we've always set out to make the best products that make a difference."
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