Sprint sold a total of 1.8 million iPhones during Q4 2011, with 40 percent of those going to new customers. Admittedly, 1.8 million is only about a quarter of the 7.6 million iPhones AT&T sold during the same period, and less than half the 4.2 million moved by Verizon, but considering Sprint’s 55 million customers ranks as the the third largest U.S. wireless carrier, and this is the first official quarter that Sprint had the iPhone to sell, it still indicates a fairly solid adoption by their subscribe base.

“Our strong fourth quarter performance illustrates the power of matching iconic devices like the iPhone with our simple, unlimited plans and industry-leading customer experience,” said Dan Hesse, Sprint CEO. “During the past year, Sprint added more than 5 million net new customers and grew wireless service revenue by more than 5 percent, including 17 percent for the Sprint platform. This momentum gives us confidence as we execute our Network Vision upgrade and 4G LTE roll-out.”

Although the company recorded a $1.3 billion net loss for the quarter, they’re focusing on added subscriber value and overall unit sales this time around. And with those added smartphone sales, new customers are subsequently coming in by the masses according to their earnings report — mostly thanks to the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S, and their position as the last U.S. carrier to offer unlimited data contracts.

It looks like that $20 billion bet Sprint made with Apple is slowly starting to pay off.

Source: Sprint

Not only did more smartphones sell this quarter than ever before, but Apple was responsible for all three of top sellers — iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, and iPhone 3GS

IDC has released a new report showing overall smartphone shipments grew a staggering 54.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011 thanks to overwhelming demand for the iPhone 4S. Rising popularity has helped push the iPhone 4S to become the number one selling smartphone in the world. Not only did Apple absolutely own the top selling spot, but they owned the top 3 spots as well. That’s right, second only to the iPhone 4S in popularity was the iPhone 4, followed up by the iPhone 3GS according to NPD Group.

Apple climbed back into the market leadership position with the launch of its iPhone 4S worldwide, and in the process it reached a new shipment volume record for itself and for the entire industry for a single quarter. Although the iPhone 4S disappointed some detractors by lacking 4G LTE connectivity or a different size screen, demand was high for the device. In addition, the combination of holiday seasonality, the delay in product launch from 3Q to 4Q, and the addition of multiple mobile operators helped drive volumes higher.

This comes after some voiced concern over setting expectations too high for the iPhone 4S, and many worried whether it was a significant enough upgrade to attract customers in large numbers. A better 8MP camera with a faster Apple A5 chip, a more reliable antenna, and Siri seem to have been more than enough to drive sales.

Something to watch for as well — Vendors shipped a total of 157.8 million smartphones worldwide last quarter and one out of every 3 mobile phones shipped was a smartphone. This shows a continuation of the trend that should, in short order, lead to the day when all phones are smartphones.

How many iPhones will Apple be able to sell then?

Source: IDC, Fortune, NPD

Distimo released an interesting report today that examined the overall effects of different app promotions across the iPhone and iPad App Store, as well as the Android Market. One of the most striking stats from the report was that “44% of the iPhone applications that have been on sale lost revenue during the sale, and 23% saw a decline in revenue by more than 20%”.

Distimo factored in how much of a price cut each app received, and put it into the above graph. As you might expect, the sharper the price cut, the greater the revenue. The graph shows that, among those that cut their price by 80%,  just as many apps lost 20% or more revenue as gained more than 100% revenue.  On the whole, putting apps on sale is still a good thing, though; the average iPhone app increased revenue by 22%, iPad apps increased by 19%, and Android app revenue went up by 29%. As you might expect, all three categories see a significant spike on the first day.

The report also examined the effects of having apps being featured. As it turns out, Android apps see a much higher boost in rank from being feature than on the iPhone or iPad. On average, an iPhone app has its rank bumped up 15 spots in the first three days of being featured, while iPad apps go up 27. Android apps? They climb 42 spots, on average. Only 11% of featured iPhone apps climbed more than 50 ranks, compared to 26% of featured Android apps.

Any app developers in the house reconsidering putting their app on sale now? I’m definitely more inclined to do my app shopping when cuts are down at the $0.99 range, but what about you guys?

Source: Distimo

AT&T has reported sales of 7.6 million iPhone units totaling 80 percent of their overall smartphone sales in Q4 2011.

The iPhone 4S no doubt helped boost iPhone numbers after Apple reported sales of 37.04 million iPhones for Q1 2012 — their biggest quarter ever. Out of the 9.4 million smartphone sales in total for the quarter, 80 percent of them were the iPhone.

• 9.4 million smartphone sales, best-ever quarter and 50 percent more than previous quarterly record and nearly double 3Q11 sales; 82 percent of postpaid sales were smartphones
• Best-ever quarter for Android and Apple smartphones, including 7.6 million iPhone activations
• 571,000 branded computing device (tablets, aircards, etc.) sales, best-ever quarter to reach 5.1 million total subscribers; up almost 70 percent from a year ago
• 12th consecutive quarter with a year-over-year increase in postpaid wireless subscriber ARPU (average monthly revenues per subscriber), up 1.4 percent to $63.76 — more than $6 higher than nearest competitor’s ARPU
• 10.0 percent growth in wireless revenues
• 19.4 percent growth in wireless data revenues, up $956 million versus the year-earlier quarter

In addition to stellar iPhone numbers, AT&T was able to add a large number of data subscribers, including those using the iPad 3G and other data-enabled tablet devices. Revenue for the quarter reached $32.5 billion, a full $1.1 billion more than last year.

We’re looking forward to seeing how Sprint made out for Q4 2011 and, as always, will bring you the numbers on February 8th during their quarterly earnings call!

Source: AT&T

The iPhone 4S is now available for pre-order in 22 additional countries, including Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. Shipping times are listed at 1-2 weeks.

Apple had over 1 million pre-orders within the first 24 hours in the original 7 launch countries on October 7, and and over 4 million in total sales during the launch weekend starting October 14.

Are you pre-ordering an international iPhone 4S? If you’re having trouble deciding which generation, color, or capacity to get, we have a complete iPhone 4S buyers guide ready and waiting. Check it out and then come back and tell us which one you ordered!

Source: MacStories

Apple has announced that they have sold four million iPhone 4S handsets in the first three days of sales, doubling the sales figures of the iPhone 4 in the same period.

“iPhone 4S is off to a great start with more than four million sold in its first weekend—the most ever for a phone and more than double the iPhone 4 launch during its first three days,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “iPhone 4S is a hit with customers around the world, and together with iOS 5 and iCloud, is the best iPhone ever.”

In addition Apple has also announced that 25 million users have upgraded to iOS 5 and 20 million of them have signed up for iCloud as well.

Full press release below. Did you expect it to sell this well? Were you one of the 4 million who got an iPhone 4S this weekend? Or if you took a pass and thought it was going to be a flop, what are your thoughts now?

iPhone 4S First Weekend Sales Top Four Million

CUPERTINO, California—October 17, 2011— Apple® today announced it has sold over four million of its new iPhone® 4S, just three days after its launch on October 14. In addition, more than 25 million customers are already using iOS 5, the world’s most advanced mobile operating system, in the first five days of its release, and more than 20 million customers have signed up for iCloud®, a breakthrough set of free cloud services that automatically and wirelessly store your content in iCloud and push it to all your devices. iPhone 4S is available today in the US, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and the UK, and will be available in 22 more countries on October 28 and more than 70 countries by the end of the year.

“iPhone 4S is off to a great start with more than four million sold in its first weekend—the most ever for a phone and more than double the iPhone 4 launch during its first three days,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “iPhone 4S is a hit with customers around the world, and together with iOS 5 and iCloud, is the best iPhone ever.”

iPhone 4S is the most amazing iPhone yet, packed with incredible new features including Apple’s dual-core A5 chip for blazing fast performance and stunning graphics; an all new camera with advanced optics; full 1080p HD resolution video recording; and Siri™, an intelligent assistant that helps you get things done just by asking.

Just as with every past Apple keynote, Tim Cook began Tuesday’s Let’s talk iPhone event by discussing numbers for devices sold, apps downloaded, percent market share, etc. Let’s take a look at those numbers:

Stores

• 100,000 visitors stopped by on opening weekend of the Shanghai store. It took the LA store to reach that many visitors.
• 357 total stores in 11 countries

Mac

• Six million copies of Lion downloaded so far – 80% more than Snow Leopard
• In comparison with Windows 7 – it took 20 weeks to reach 10% of the Windows install base. It took Lion two weeks.
• The MacBook Pro and the iMac are the number one best selling notebook and desktop in the United States
• Mac platform has grown by 23% since last year (the PC has grown by 4%)
• Approaching 60 million Mac users worldwide
• 23% market share for Apple as of August

iPod

• iPod has 78% of portable music player market share
• Over 300 million iPods have been sold (It took Sony 30 years to sell 220,000 Walkman cassette players)
• 45 million iPods sold from July 2010 to June 2011
• 20 million songs on iTunes- twenty times what the service launched with
• 16 billion songs downloaded from iTunes

iPhone

• The iPhone 4 makes up half of the overall iPhone market
• 125 percent growth year-over-year for iPhone sales
• 70% customer satisfaction with iPhone (HTC is second with 49%)
• iPhone is 5% percent of the overall mobile phone market

iPad

• Every state in the US has an iPad deployment program
• 1,000 schools have a 1:1 program
• Over 80% of the hospitals in the US are testing or piloting iPad
• 92% of Fortune 500 companies are testing or deploying iPads
• #1 tablet in the world – 75% of all tablets sold are iPads

iOS

• More than 250 million devices sold
• #1 mobile operating system – 43% share compared to Android’s 33%

Apps

• More than 500,000 apps in the App Store
• 140,000 iPad specific apps
• 18 billion downloaded apps
• More than 1 billion apps downloaded per month
• Apple has paid out $3 billion to developers

This last statistic is the interesting one to me, because Apple never mentions how much their cut of the app sales is. Well, I did the math for you, and Apple has earned nearly $1.3 billion in app sales. Not too shabby.

We’re covering WWDC 2011 live! And along with WWDC always comes facts and figures. Here’s an interesting one – Apple has sold over 25 million iPads in the past 14 months. This figure includes the original iPad and the iPad 2.

Developers have created over 90,000 applications just for iPad since its initial launch. And with it came over $2.5B in money paid out to developers. Yes, we said that right, billions.

This obviously includes all iOS platforms (iPad, iPhone, iPod). For many light users, the iPad has succeeded in replacing their personal computer.

How many of you use your iPad as your main device? Does this number surprise you at all?

[Image via Engadget]

This year is turning out to be a big one for Apple. They recently passed Microsoft in net income earnings at $5.99 billion compared to $5.23 billion from Microsoft — mainly due to iOS devices like the iPad 2 and iPhone 4 driving sales and raising profit margins. The iPhone, iPad and iPod touch currently represent roughly 65% of overall sales for Apple, with the Verizon iPhone helping push demand even further as Android growth seems to be at a plateau.

Apple and Verizon had a very successful launch of the iPhone 4, which allowed the iPhone to expand its market share that was previously held back by its prolonged carrier exclusivity with AT&T [...] some of that growth came at the expense of Android operating system

Apple has now edged out HTC, Motorola and RIM as the third-largest smartphone maker in the US with a 14% share of sales, and they don’t appear to be slowing down anytime soon. They just released the white iPhone 4 with reports of lines forming at Apple Stores — all for a device that’s already been on the market for 10 months, just in a different color. And with WWDC 2011 just around the corner for Apple to reveal iOS 5 to the masses, it seems they have nowhere to go but up from here.

But can the iPhone and iPad help sustain Apple’s growth given how determined the competition is at beating them in the smartphone and tablet markets? Sound off in the comments below!

[NPD, TechCrunch, Asymco]

The Loop was able to speak with Apple Spokesperson Trudy Muller today, who stated Apple saw consumer demand for the iPad 2 launch last Friday to be “amazing”.

“Demand for the next generation iPad 2 has been amazing,” Apple spokesperson Trudy Muller, told The Loop. “We are working hard to get iPad 2 into the hands of every customer who wants one as quickly as possible.”

Apple hasn’t announced how many iPad 2 units were sold over the opening weekend, but our guess is that Apple sold every single unit they were able to make and if they’d been able to make more, they’d have sold more. It took the original iPad 28 days to reach 1 million units. iPad 2 might easily have beaten that in a day.

What’s you guess? How many iPad 2s did Apple sell this weekend?

[The Loop]

Developer Marco Arment, whose Instapaper app he believes is a good bellwether of iOS adoption, didn’t see a spike with the Verizon iPhone launch — leading him to believe many early Verizon iPhone buyers had previous iOS devices. Now we have heard Verizon iPhone sales were less than expected. Unlike cyclical AT&T iPhone releases, however, many potential customers are likely still on existing contracts and will wait until their next upgrade to switch over to the Verizon iPhone. That’s a slow, steady pace as opposed to the previous mad June rushes.

Here on TiPb we’ve seen a pretty large influx of BlackBerry users and a fair amount of Android converts, but even if they didn’t own an iPhone before they could have had an iPod touch or iPad to get their hands into the iOS platform.

So let’s ask! Is Verizon iPhone your first iOS device? Vote in the poll up top and tell us which iOS device(s) you previously owned in the comments below. If you did have an iOS device before, did you just load it up with your existing app or did you go on another app shopping spree?

[Marco.org]

BGR is reporting that, according to one of their Apple sources, the first week of sales for the new Verizon iPhone were purportedly smaller than Apple and Verizon expected. The figures were drawn from five Apple retails stores covering the first five days of availability, including two “very, very prominent” locations and show a dwindling margin between AT&T and Verizon sales after the first 48 hours of availability:

• Thursday: Verizon = 909, AT&T = 539
• Friday: Verizon = 916, AT&T = 680
• Saturday: Verizon = 660, AT&T = 471
• Sunday: Verizon = 796, AT&T = 701
• Monday: Verizon = 711, AT&T = 618

The difference between Verizon and AT&T sales were as low as 12% by day four, although the Verizon iPhone still managed to out-sell that of AT&T. We’re not exactly sure what Apple’s expectations were, but regardless it looks like the Verizon iPhone has still been out-selling the AT&T iPhone since day one.

They were also told that online pre-orders between Verizon and Apple amounted to around 550,000 units after selling out within the first 18 hours. The majority of Verizon iPhone buyers were Android switchers at 30% followed by sales to ex-Blackberry users at 25%. Only 14% of Verizon iPhone sales were to former AT&T iPhone users.

There are probably a fair amount of people still locked into contracts, on family plans, or corporate accounts who may have to wait to switch. That could be a gradual process to say the least. Still, given all the hype do you think store sales numbers should have been higher out of the gate? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

[BGR]

How many iPhones, iPod touches, and iPads were opened on Christmas? Check out the Facebook for iPhone download spike above for one datapoint. A second datapoint comes from Tap Tap Revenge 4:

Tapulous tells us that peak Christmas downloads reached 45,000 per hour, and that holiday download traffic is twice the levels of last year.

Facebook is probably the most popular iPhone app of all time and TTR4 is among the most popular right now, but the mapping is probably still not be one-to-one. Either way, that’s a lot of iOS devices under the tree this year.

[allfacebook.com, Business Insider, via Daring Fireball x2]

Apple announced today that sales of Apple TV are expected to top 1 million units this week. The significantly smaller, significantly less expensive Apple TV was introduced at Apple’s annual iPod and iTunes event in September and released at the end of that month. With a focus on rental rather than purchase, streaming rather than sync, Hollywood rather than “amateur hour” and Netflix as well as iTunes, Apple’s PR on the subject provides some interesting stats but strangely, no quotes from Apple execs:

iTunes users are now renting and purchasing over 400,000 TV episodes and over 150,000 movies per day.

While it took longer than iPhone 4 or iPad to reach the 1 million mark, is this any indication Apple TV might be poised to move beyond “hobby” status? Or will that still take Hulu, HBO, and major league sports deals?

[Apple PR]

EA recently lowered the price of roughly 70 of their iPhone and iPad App Store games to $0.99, now Gamevil has as well and soon other will join them as the holiday iTunes Connect deadline fast approaches, more may follow. Mike Schramm from TUAW explains why:

Apple is freezing the charts on December 23rd, which means that any games in the top 200 at that time will remain there over the all-important Christmas holiday, the point at which we’ve seen the biggest jumps in App Store sales (due to all the new hardware out there under the tree).

So when everyone gets their brand new iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad and heads over to the App Store to get their game on, those top selling, top free, and top grossing leaderboards are going to be marketing gold.

Now who’s next?

[TUAW]

With one of the biggest sales days of the year almost upon us I began to think about the iPhone and iPad App Store and whether low price points encouraged consistent buying or frequent sales trained shoppers to always wait for sales?

Do you always buy the latest, greatest apps and games the minute they come out, eager to get right into them and seldom phased by prices that are about the same as a latte or hamburger? Or do you think pretty much every app with drop in price after a few weeks or months, or have a seasonal sale, so why bother paying more?

Does the awesomeness of the app sway your decision making at all? If it’s the hottest game or latest social craze do you jump on it immediately, but if you’re not sure you really want it do you wait for a sale so you can try it out for less?

Does the price cause you to either shop now or wait, with $0.99 being a no-brainer impulse buy but $9.99 lead you to consider the decision and timing more?

Or is it a mix, depending on mood and moment, how bored you are vs. how cash strapped, big brands vs. unknown indies, what your friends recommend or Apple or the blogs give a spotlight to? Does Angry Birds get your cash right away but Mildly Disgruntled Vermin have to wait for 50%?

Vote up in the poll above and let me know your thoughts in the comments below.

Turn by turn navigation apps for the iPhone are some of the most expensive in the App Store so when a bunch of them told TiPb they were having Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales we wanted to pass on the word, and the savings!

Here’s the list so far:

• CoPilot Live USA for iPhone: $2.99
• CoPilot Live North America for iPhone: $9.99
• CoPilot Live HD North America app for iPad: $19.99

• [Co-Pilot on iTunes link]

• Magellan Roadmate North America: $44.99 instead of $59.99 (until Dec. 1)

• Magellan RoadMate USA: $34.99 instead of $49.99 (until Dec. 1)
• Magellan RoadMate Canada: $29.99 instead of $34.99 (until Dec. 1)

• [Magellan on iTunes link]

• NAVIGON MobileNavigator iPhone USA: $29.99 instead of $49.99 (Nov. 26)

• NAVIGON MobileNvaigator iPhone MyRegion: $19.99 instead of $29.99 (Nov. 26)

• [NAVIGON on iTunes link]

• TomTom US, Canada, or Mexico: $34.99 (Nov. 26 to 30)

• [TomTom on iTunes link]

If you know of any others add them to comments and let us know which one(s) you pick up and what you think of them!

Want to save money n a brand new iPad or iPod touch during Apple’s annual Black Friday sale? Well if Australia is any indication, you’re in luck. iPad is showing a AUS$51 reduction across the line, iPod touch from AUS$25 to $51 depending on model, and iPod nano from AUS$15 to $25 depending on model.

Since Australia is in the future it makes sense the sales start there and then slowly make their way across Asia, Europe, and eventually North America, and while it’s not a lock everyone will get the same products discounted by the same amounts, it’s a fairly good indicator.

If you’re trying to decide between an iPad and a MacBook Air, or whether to get an iPad now or wait until iPad 2, check out TiPb TV for our advice.

Let us know when your local Apple Retail or Apple Online store Black Friday sales go live and what the discounts look like. Happy shopping!

Apple Online and Apple Retail have only one sale a year — Black Friday, held the day after Thanksgiving — and Apple has already got a helpful reminder posted on their website:

Come back to the Apple Online Store the day after Thanksgiving for a special one-day-only holiday shopping event. You’ll find dozens of great iPad, iPod and Mac gifts for everyone on your list.

We doubt we’ll see any discounts on the iPhone, but iPod touch has had them in the past and it’s the first year for iPad so who knows? Last year savings included $5 on a Magic Mouse, $11 on an iPod nano, $21 on an Apple TV, $41 on an iPod touch, or $101 on a MacBook Pro or iMac, so anything is possible.

If you’re not in the mood to get out of bed at 4 in the morning and would rather shop from the comfort of your own home, head on over to the Apple Online Store this Friday to see what kind of deals you can grab.

[Apple]

iPads seem to be cropping up in a few Walmart stores a little ahead of schedule. Target and Amazon recently started carrying iPads and it wasn’t long before we started hearing Walmart iPad rumors. It became official when Walmart announced an iPad event. With all these new retailers carrying new iDevices, it seems Apple is ramping themselves up to take advantage of holiday sales. I live in an area where the closest Apple store is over an hour away, so being able to stop into one of our local stores is always a welcome option. Now that we have not only Apple – but Best Buy, Target, Amazon, and Walmart selling iPads, they should be a lot more accessible to many more people.

Walmart employees seem to have gotten overly excited and placed a few iPads on shelves ahead of the official launch. The pic above was sent to TUAW from one of their readers. Anyone else seeing iPads crop up at their local Walmart a little ahead of schedule? If you see some, send your pics our way!

[via TUAW]

Since iPad doesn’t seem (yet?) to be cannibalizing Mac sales, those 1 million units moved a month have to be eating into something and it looks like netbooks — which Steve Jobs said aren’t better at anything — are the ones on the buffet:

Asustek Computer saw sales of its netbooks in the second quarter fall short of expectations mainly due to competition from Apple’s iPad, and has downward adjusted its target shipments for the third quarter, the traditional peak sales period, to 1.4 million units, according to company president and CEO Jerry Shen at an investors conference on August 13.

They’re going to try an eeePad to compete.

[Digitimes via 9to5mac]

Apple has announced that from launch through Saturday, June 26 they’ve sold 1.7 million iPhone 4s.

“This is the most successful product launch in Apple’s history,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “Even so, we apologize to those customers who were turned away because we did not have enough supply.”

1.7 million with ordering problems, not enough stock to meet demand for many who showed up without a reservation, almost no advertising yet from Apple, and a launch restricted to just a handful of countries.

Crazy.

[Apple PR]

Apple just announced that they’ve sold 3 million iPads in its first 80 days on the market. For those keeping track, given it took roughly 60 days to sell 2 million, iPad sales are accelerating.

“People are loving iPad as it becomes a part of their daily lives,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We’re working hard to get this magical product into the hands of even more people around the world, including those in nine more countries next month.”

Interestingly, while outside my local shopping mall yesterday, I watched two women walk by, point at the giant Apple logo and say, “look, it’s the iPad store”.

Is it safe to say Apple has mainstreamed the tablet yet, or are we going to wait and see a few generations now just to be sure?

[Apple PR]

Those of us actually awake here at TiPb – namely me – wanted to give you a heads up and let you know that you can now pre-order your black only iPhone 4 in the online Apple store. Head on over to the Apple online store and get your order in to guarantee your device arrives on June 24th!

And what happened to the white iPhone 4 is a pretty good question that hopefully Apple will answer sooner rather than later…

Update: If you’ve unsuccessfully been trying to order your iPhone 4 via the Apple site, hit up this AT&T link as many of you are having much better luck there.

RadioShack’s corporate Twitter account has just announced that The Shack will be offering up Apple’s latest and greatest device, iPhone 4, on launch day – June 24th.

YES! RadioShack will have #iPhone4 at launch. More info tomorrow.

RadioShack now joins the ranks of Apple, Best Buy, and AT&T stores in selling iPhone 4. Where do you plan on going come June 24th?

Sound off in the comments below!

[Gizmodo]

According to The Wall Street Journal Google is planning on introducing their very own eBook store as early as this next month, and gearing up once again to go head-to-head with Apple. This news comes just after Apple announced that in just 28 days, iPad users have downloaded over 1.5 million eBooks via iBooks.

“Google says its new service–called Google Editions–will allow users to buy digital copies of books they discover through its book search service. It will also allow book retailers to sell Google Editions on their own sites, taking the bulk of the revenue. Google has yet to release details about pricing and which publishers are expected to participate.”

Unlike on devices such as the iPhone, iPad and Kindle, Google’s approach will be to allow users access to the digital books from a complete range of websites and over various devices.

Would any of our readers prefer Google’s eBooks over Apple’s iBooks? Sound off in the comments below!

[WSJ via Mac Rumors]

The Boy Genius has been hearing from his AT&T contacts that it is highly likely AT&T will be selling the 3G version of Apple’s iPad in their corporate stores across the country.

Don’t get too excited thinking AT&T will offer any sort of subsidy, however, because that is simply not in the cards. The rumored plan is that AT&T will be pushing prepaid data plans along with transforming some of the in-store netbook display sections into substantial iPad display areas.

Would you prefer to visit an AT&T location over an Apple store to pick up your very own iPad? Sound off in the comments!

[Via BGR]

According to the mobile App analytics firm, Flurry, not only has the App Store seen a record-breaking month, December nearly doubling sales from November, this holiday season has seen iPod touch sales skyrocket as well.

Since November iPhone users have downloaded the most apps from the App Store, that is until Christmas day as iPod touch app downloads eclipsed those of the iPhone by 172%. And if you think that sounds impressive, downloads from Apple’s third-generation iPod touch jumped up nearly 900% on Christmas Day alone.

All of this data would indicate that the iPod touch was quite a hot seller this holiday season. How many of our readers gifted or received their own iPod touch this Christmas?

[Via 9to5Mac]

While announced 100,000 iPhones have been sold since it’s launch back on October 30th.

If you stop and think about it, China Unicom has about 144 million customers so that 100,000 mark really does not seem like much. Again, we are blaming slow sales on the abundance of unlocked iPhones that actually have WiFi and can be used with Pre-Paid SIM cards.

Rumor has it that, since the local laws have changed, Apple will be making a WiFi iPhone for China, but will it be enough? Or is the Chinese market just too different and is Apple too slow to catch on to that fact?

[Thanks to the Reptile for the tip]

Apple has sold an estimated 60,000 iPhones on launch day in South Korea and can be considered a success, especially if compared to the dismal sales in China.

In the 3rd quarter of 2009, the 60,000 iPhones sold equal 15% of the 400,000 total smartphones sold within the country. Not too shabby for for a single day of sales.

“In spite of the fact that the Korean market offers one of the most advanced set of mobile products and services in the world, smartphones only represent about 1% of the total mobile market, Executives at KT believe that the introduction of the iPhone could be a turning point for smartphones in Korea.”

With smartphones representing a total of only 1% of the total market, mainly due to handset manufacturers such as LG and Samsung who have long been king in this particular market, it seems like Apple has their work cut out for them.

[Via AppleInsider]

One would think that if the iPhone went on sale in the Chinese market it would sell like mad. So far, this is simply not the case as one of the largest Chinese online retailers, Taobao.com, has sold a total of five iPhones within the first two weeks of the device being available. China Unicom is also a seller of the phone but as of today, no official numbers have even been released.

With these poor sales aside, the iPhone is indeed very popular in China because of the unlocked devices that have been sold on the black market since the first generation iPhone was released back in 2007. If you take that into consideration and throw in the facts that the official version now being sold has been stripped of WiFi along with the ability to use pre-paid SIMs, both of which are very popular in China, you can see why people flock to the black market.

As it stands now, the iPhone is a flop in China. At least through official channels…

[Via Cult of Mac]

Those waiting for the US (and UK, Canadian, etc. honorific) Apple Online Store’s Black Friday Sale — the only sale Apple ever does — can get a sneak preview as it’s already Black Friday in Australia and Apple’s deals are live. Call us down-underwhelmed (groan, we know) but really, who expected anything more than 8%-10% of iPod touch, iPods in general, Apple TV, and Macs?

If you’re in Oz and have been waiting to pull the trigger, pull away. If you’re in the UK or North America, check it out and see if there’s anything pull-worthy for ya.

[via TUAW]

The research firm Gartner reports that, for the second quarter of 2009, the iPhone continues to increase its market share on a world-wide level. In fact, it leads the way with the highest increase of market share, as sales increased by 10.5% from one year ago.

This increase of market share can be accounted for due to a few separate reasons. For starters, the early June price drop of the iPhone 3G to $99 was clearly a great way to move inventory while boosting sales. Apple’s product release timing is also plays a large role in their success. While releasing iPhone 3GS to the market at the very end of the second quarter of 2009 all of the initial sales were included in this report.

Everyone knows the iPhone took mind share early on, and there’s little doubt left they own profit share as well. It will be interesting to see where market share ultimately ends up…

[via MacRumors]

We already knew Apple sold — and upsold — 1 million iPhone 3GS devices opening weekend, but an internal memo shows just how big an event that was for AT&T. Massive summer blockbuster, thy name is iPhone 3GS.

On this year’s launch day, iPhone sales exceeded sales recorded on 2008′s iPhone launch day, Black Friday 2008 and Dec. 26, 2008 — all heavy-volume sales days. In fact, this year we surpassed 2008′s launch day sales at about noon Central time, and sustained our previous peak hour record, also set in 2008, for 11 straight hours.

Now imagine how many they would have sold if MMS and tethering were ready, and they’d expanding their network to better handle iPhone traffic.

(What, the dead horse had it coming!)

[Via MacDailyNews, thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

Jeremy will likely be back soon with your regular dose of Apps for Less, but as the Easter/Passover/Whatever your holiday of preference weekend begins, a couple sites are taking advantage of users likely to have some free time, and family avoidance needs, on their hands with special App sales.

First up, Easter App Sales has a score (20 for you digital types) of discounts listed for Hero of Zero, Nintaii, Tap Forms, Caddy.me, Memengo Wallet, Restaurant Find, Distant Suns, iBearMoney, Varinome, Grand Tour, iBearBrain, Twelve Steps Companion, Memory and Systems info, Japanese Phrases, Fast Food Calorie Counter, Currency Exchange Rates, iMissal, Doctors, and SleepStream.

Arnold Kim also points out via Twitter that AppShopper is keeping track of “lots of Easter Sales in the App Store”.

If you spot any super sweet deals to go along with our candy eggs, chocolate matzah, or non-religious sugar frosted truffles, let us know!

With record quarters and more money in the bank than… well, many banks, it’s hard to see Apple getting hit by “hard economic times”, but according to CNet, they either are, or are preparing to be:

Sources who wished to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal confirmed reports by Valleywag and 9to5Mac.com that roughly 50 salespeople were let go by the company for “business and economic reasons,” according to one source. An entire sales group based in Austin, Texas, was let go as well as workers in Cupertino, Calif., where Apple is headquartered. Those affected were given severance packages and the opportunity to apply for other jobs inside Apple.

Hopefully all the workers find those other jobs inside Apple quickly.

Rumors are flying today that Apple may have already hit the suddenly-not-so-outrageous-sounding 10 Million iPhones Sold goal set by Steve Jobs for 2008. Reader Reptile pointed us to Seeking Alpha’s IMEI tracking coverage:

The consensus estimates for iPhone sales figures for Apple’s Q4 (calendar Q3) were calling for approximately 4 million units. It now appears that Apple has sold at least 7 to 7.5 million iPhones in Q4—that’s nearly 80% above consensus. Apple has far surpassed even Gene Munster’s bullish estimates of 5 million iPhone sales in Q4 according to the data. [...] Coming into the quarter, Apple had already sold 2.42 million iPhones. Thus, 7.6 million 3G iPhones sold puts Apple above 10 million units for the year.

Magic 8-Ball? Most likely

Apple’s quarterly conference call, scheduled for Oct. 21, should put some official numbers to the iPhone tally, but we think it’s safe to say they’re doing pretty fine. NPD, after all, has just released their numbers which show, according to Apple Insider, that the iPhone is now the #2 selling handset in the US (trailing only the cockroach-like ubiquity of the RAZRv3). CIO.com is going so far as to say the iPhone is the #1 selling smartphone in the US!

Who’s this hurting? The 30% who dumped their original carriers to get an iPhone AT&T:

The bulk of new iPhone owners who switched — 47% — left Verizon Wireless, while another 24% dumped T-Mobile and 19% switched from Sprint.

Ouch! Analysts are touting the T-Mobile Android/Google G1 and Verizon Blackberry Storm as possible blood-clotters for the other networks. However, while iPhone 2.x is already on the market (and Macworld 2009′s potential further revelations just around the corner), the G1 and Storm are racing to catch up with what are likely to be very public beta-devices of their own. And they’re light-years further along than the caught-flat-footed Windows Mobile 7 and Palm OS 2 Nova…

What do you think? Did Apple hit on a winning formula this year? Or was it all advertising sizzle and no steak? Can the other carriers/manufacturers come back? Or could it be that while everyone else was working on increasingly complex little smartphones with poor UI running on hobbled, outdated OS’s, Apple snuck in a real mobile computing platform tucked away behind iPod-like ease of use?

3 days. That’s how long it took Apple and their carrier-partners to sell one million iPhone 3Gs. Says Apple CEO Steve Jobs:

“iPhone 3G had a stunning opening weekend. It took 74 days to sell the first one million original iPhones, so the new iPhone 3G is clearly off to a great start around the world.”

Almost 25 times faster. Server crash-induced delays not withstanding, other manufacturers — other carriers — must be having a sobering Monday morning. (Especially with it taking 6 months for Palm sell as many uber-cheap Centros…)

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Steve Jobs announced Apple would sell 10 million iPhones in 2008. Up until June, given waning sales, 3G expectations, and large-scale unavailability from Apple and carriers alike, it didn’t look possible.

Enter $199. Jobs said it. I said it. Casey said it. Pretty much everyone and their blog said it. Now the analysts are saying it to:

Sales BOOM!

In total [RBC's Mike Abramsky] expects Apple to sell 14 million iPhones by the end of the year [...] For 2009 though Abramsky is only predicting sales of 24 million, a drastic difference from Piper Jaffray estimates of 45 million. Observes note however that Piper is factoring in unannounced sibling iPhones, which could make the device more affordable for the average person.

They’re talking iPod scale numbers now, folks.

What do you think? Can Apple do with the iPhone what they did with the iPod?

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