It seems folks who thought the availability of a $99 iPhone 3G would cannibalize initial sales of Apple’s brand-new iPhone 3GS were wrong: Apple has announced it has sold more than 1 million iPhone 3GS units during the phone’s first weekend of availability. And, just to put the icing on the gloating, Apple offered a quote from soon-to-be-returning CEO Steve Jobs on the 3GS’s apparent success:
"Customers are voting and the iPhone is winning," said Jobs, in a statement. "With over 50,000 applications available from Apple’s revolutionary App Store, iPhone momentum is stronger than ever."
Of course, U.S. iPhone users still aren’t very happy with AT&T, Apple’s exclusive carrier partner for the iPhone in the United States. While the iPhone 3GS supports MMS messaging, AT&T won’t be ready with the service until "late summer." And while the iPhone 3GS supports 7.2 Mbps HSDPA connectivity, AT&T doesn’t have that ready to go yet either; AT&T also isn’t supporting tethering, which would enable user to use their iPhone’s Internet connection with notebook computers and other devices via Wi-FI.
Nonetheless, customers are clearly voting with their feet, embracing the iPhone’s new 32 GB capacity, video-capable 3 megapixel camera, longer battery life, faster processor, compass, and voice control—along with the new features of Apple’s iPhone OS 3.0, which finally brings Copy and Paste (along with phone-wide searching, a landscape keyboard, and push notifications) to the iPhone.
The iPhone 3GS with 32 GB of storage is available for $299 while a 16 GB version is available for $199; an 8 GB version of the original iPhone 3G is available for $99. All phones require a two year service contract.
(In an unrelated note, Apple seems to have quietly changed the way it refers to the new iPhone: when the phone was announced, it was the "iPhone 3G S;" as of today, Apple’s materials are calling it the "iPhone 3GS." The unit may have more capacity than its predecessor, but as of this morning it has one less space.)
