Apple’s iPhone hits 3 billion sales and the machine keeps running

Apple just crossed a line few brands ever will – a whopping 3 billion iPhones sold since 2007. That’s far from being just a stat, it’s quite literally a cultural landmark. And while it came up during an earnings call, Tim Cook didn’t bury the lede, he made sure the world knew.

One lineup, three billion sales

The journey is one for the ages. It took Apple nine years to sell the first billion iPhones. Another just nine to add two billion more. That’s growth at a scale even the most bullish analysts didn’t predict back when Steve Jobs held up the original iPhone like a magic trick.

This milestone comes as Apple’s grip on Wall Street feels just a little shakier. Microsoft and Nvidia have taken the lead in the race for world’s most valuable company, and yet, the iPhone continues to be the company’s most bankable hit.

Case in point – in its latest fiscal Q3 results, Apple posted $44.6 billion in iPhone revenue, which is a 13 per cent jump year-over-year. That’s nearly half of Apple’s total $94 billion haul for the quarter. So, the iPhone isn’t just a product, it’s the engine. And this quarter, it revved louder than expected.

Why the surge though? Some analysts, like Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, speculate it could be partly driven by fear, specifically, Trump’s proposed tariffs, which may have prompted a rush in US iPhone purchases before potential price hikes.

Regardless of the why, the result is undeniable. Three billion iPhones in the wild, shaping how the world connects, scrolls, records, FaceTimes, and doomscrolls. For reference, Samsung, Apple’s eternal frenemy, is believed to have shipped similar volumes of Galaxy phones since it entered the fray in 2009. But Samsung’s sprawling Android empire includes dozens of models across price points. Apple did it with one line.

ALSO READ: Every iPhone ever launched since 2007

Let’s zoom out a bit. Between 1992 and 2020, around 26.3 billion mobile phones were shipped globally. By 2022, that figure hit nearly 29 billion. That means more than 10 per cent of all mobile phones ever sold were iPhones. For a single brand with a famously closed ecosystem, that’s an absurd statistic.

And while Android still rules the global market with around 70 per cent share as of 2024, Apple’s appeal doesn’t lie in numbers alone. It’s about brand gravity. The green bubble still causes social anxiety. The titanium frame still turns heads. The yearly keynote still draws millions.

Three billion sold; not because it was the cheapest, or the fastest to innovate, or the most open. But because it was the iPhone. And as the sales keep climbing, the story’s far from over.