Apple Hits 10 Million IPhone Target Two Months Early

Apple CEO Steve Jobs and CFO Peter Oppenheimer confirmed today that Apple has sold more than 10 million iPhones since the beginning of the calendar year, with two month of sales to go. Ten million iPhones was the company's 2008 goal.

Apple has only reported 9.3 million iPhone sales for the iPhone in its quarterly earnings statements since the beginning of the year, but that doesn't account for all the iPhones the company has sold since the start of its newest fiscal quarter, which began in October.

Apple reported sales of 6.9 million iPhone 3Gs for the most recent quarter, and has launched the iPhone in 51 countries worldwide, now with over 30,000 points of distribution. By comparison, the original iPhone, which was released in June, 2007 and sold until July, 2008, sold 6.1 million units during its entire run.

Oppenheimer and Jobs also reiterated that Apple sold more iPhones for its most recent quarter than Research In Motion (RIM), makers of the popular BlackBerry business handheld. RIM reported 6.1 million unit sales for its most recent quarter.

"Apple outsold RIM last quarter, and this is a milestone for us. RIM is a good company that makes good products, and so it is surprising that we could outsell them in any quarter after only 15 months in the market," said Jobs.

Jobs said that when measured by revenues, at $4.6 billion in phone revenue Apple "has become the world's third-largest mobile phone supplier," after Nokia ($12.7 billion) and Samsung ($5.9 billion), and ahead of Sony Ericsson ($4.2 billion), LG ($3.4 billion), Motorola ($3.2 billion), and RIM ($2.1 billion). "Pretty amazing," Jobs said. "Not bad for being in the market only 15 months."