Apple has netted a minimum of $300 million dollars over the past weekend after selling 525,000 iPhones in 24hours. On top of this Apple is taking a slice of all revenue generated via the iPhone with AT&T insiders saying that it is as high as 10% of all network revenue.
Apple claims that it sold up to 525,000 iPhones at its stores and AT&T’s in the first weekend since the device launched on Friday, the Los Angeles Times has reported. And half of Apple’s stores on the US west coast sold out on the first day, said other media outlets, citing San Francisco’s Global Equities Research.
According to AT&T, provider of wireless services for the iPhone, most of its 1,800 stories sold out within 24 hours.
The phone, on sale in Europe this year, and Australia next year. From the Network revenue apple could by year end be netting over $12million a month from US sales alone without having to sell another iPhone.
Apple boss Steve Jobs has said the iPhone will become Apple’s third main business after the iPod music player and Mac computer, which generate $10bn in annual sales each.
Apple said it hoped to sell 10 million iPhones by 2008 and grab a 1% share of the mobile phone market.
Waiting list
According to Apple’s website, there is already a two to four week waiting list to order the phone online.
The quad-band phone has a 3.5in (9cm) touch screen, wi-fi, no keyboard, a camera and a web browser on board.
It is intended to be used as a media player to listen to music and watch video uploaded to it via iTunes.
It is available in two versions, having either four or eight gigabytes of memory.
Apple said the iPhone’s battery would give eight hours of talk time, six hours of web use or seven hours of video watching.
The device costs either $499 or $599 and buyers must also commit to a two-year contract with AT&T that will cost them a minimum of $59.99 per month.
As with many Apple products, prices in Europe are likely to be higher than direct currency conversions from the US dollar would suggest.
The iPhone is due to debut in Europe in late 2007 and in Asia in 2008.
