Apple says 1M iPhone 3Gs sold in first three days of sales

App Store has 10M downloads in early going
Apple Inc. announced today that it sold its 1 millionth iPhone 3G worldwide on Sunday, three days after the device launched, and added that more than 10 million applications from the App Store had been downloaded since late last week.

Hitting the 1 million mark in three days is a big improvement over the 74 days it took to sell 1 million of the original iPhones in the U.S. market last year, according to Apple Inc. officials.

Independent analyst Jeff Kagan called those early sales "impressive ... and amazing."

In a statement, Apple CEO Steve Jobs called the opening weekend iPhone 3G sales "stunning ... the new iPhone 3G is clearly off to a great start around the world."

Jobs termed the App Store's performance "a grand slam."

In the U.S., customers were unable to perform in-store activations on Friday, but the problem apparently was resolved by 6 p.m. Eastern time, according to an AT&T Inc. spokeswoman. She said 2,000 AT&T stores sold out of the iPhone on Friday, but customers were able to place orders and pick them up later.

Apple didn't comment on the activation delay, but analysts noted that it didn't seem to have slowed sales in the U.S.

Two customers who waited in line in downtown Boston at an Apple store Friday morning to buy an iPhone 3G said by e-mail that they had to take the phones home to activate them.

Thomas Kozlek, a medical student at Boston University, said he tried twice to activate the device on Friday at home and was able to get it to work on the second try by about 5 p.m. Eastern time. "It's rather expected, so I'm not mad or annoyed," he said in an e-mail. "I know once it does become activated, I'll be extremely satisfied."

Kozlek's parents each bought an iPhone 3G and also activated them successfully at home on Friday.

Colin Dickerson, an engineer at P&G Beauty, a Boston-based division of The Procter & Gamble Co., said his activation at home Friday afternoon took an hour and a half, but he said a friend who also purchased the device spent seven hours trying to activate his iPhone. In both cases, the activations were made wirelessly in Dickerson's apartment.

Kagan said it "might have been a mild headache" to do home activations, but it didn't turn out to be a major problem for customers, AT&T or Apple.

Compworld