Members of Mac Observer’s AFB have been tracking the IMEI numbers for the iPhone sold. International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number is a unique 15-digit code assigned to each individual iPhone found in its settings. The members of Apple Finance Board at Mac Observer are maintaining a spreadsheet of iPhone IMEI data points with the purchase date, model and production week.
According to the data from early September Apple was on its eighth TAC, each TAC can register one million iPhones, meaning 8 million 3G iPhones have already been manufactured. The latest IMEI data collected was 9,190,680 – a 8GB black iPhone that was manufactured on September 29 and sold on October 5. AppleInsider says that even if we assume that 1.5 million iPhones are unsold, the data shows that 7.6 million have been sold. That will bring the total number of iPhone sold in 2008 to more than 10 million, the goal that was stated by Apple when they released the iPhone in 2007.
This also means Apple has surpassed the 4 million units estimated by many analyst for iPhone 3G in Q4 2008 that ended on September 30th. If the data is accurate then Apple sold at least 7 to 7.5 million iPhone in Q4, which will make the sales 80 percent above the general consensus.
In other related news, NPD Group is saying that the iPhone 3G is now the second best selling handset behind Motorola Razr 3. According to NPD Group’s research one in three iPhone 3G purchasers switched from other carriers to join AT&T. Verizon suffered the worst hit with 47 percent of new customers who joining AT&T for the iPhone were from the company, followed by 24 percent from T-Mobile and 19 percent from Sprint.
“The launch of the lower priced iPhone 3G was a boon to overall consumer smartphone sales,” said Ross Rubin, director of industry analysis. “While the original iPhone also helped win customers for AT&T, the faster network speeds of the iPhone 3G has proven more appealing to customers that already had access to a 3G network.”
NPD says that the top-selling smartphone between June and August 2008 was the iPhone 3G. BlackBerry Curve in second place, BlackBerry Pearl in third place and Palm Centro in fourth place followed it.