So Apple is bragging the iPhone 3G has jumped over the magical million point, which is all well and good, but what does that actually mean? As always the answer is in the details, so yes we’ll give Apple the fact that the original iPhone only took 74 day to reach that particular milestone, but it was available in far less countries.
There are some referenced being spoken apparently that Apple is making reference to the number of iPhone 3G’s sold to its carrier partners rather than to actual users, which could bring the definition of “sale” under scrutiny, although Cupertino perspective would make sense as Apple’s payday does end with the carriers.
Now here is something quite interesting, Engadget has got hold of a few stats on number ports in and out of T-Mobile USA handled by a national carrier. What they have is data of the original iPhone and the iPhone 3G launches.
Here’s the ting, in excess of 1000 ports in total, ports to AT&T represent under 40% of the company’s total outflow during the days surrounding the launch of the iPhone 3G whereas virtually 70% last time round.
Also there were about the same amount of inbound ports from AT&T during the same time which means T-Mobile lost no ground because of the Apple iPhone 3G launch.