iPhone OS sales figures

I’ve previously written about Apple being a strong competitor to Nintendo’s mobile gaming darling, the DS. In today’s Apple Event about iPhone 3.0, some interesting tidbits came out that shed even more light on the situation.

Specifically, the announcement that over 30 million iPhone OS devices have been sold to date. This is a nice little nugget because Apple rarely itemizes sales figures by SKU. Typically iPhone sales are recorded as iPhones and iPod touches get lumped into the iPod category so there has been much speculation as to what the actual install base for iPhone OS is, and in turn, what the market size for mobile games and other apps is shaping up to be. Back in December, I said: “Assuming a conservative 10-15% of iPods sold are touches accounts for an additional 5 to 8 million gaming devices.” This is likely a bit low as end of year cumulative iPhone sales totaled 17.4M while as of today ‘over’ 30M iPhone OS’s have been sold.

At any rate, it’s now easier to see specifically how iPhone OS stacks up against the DS.

As you can see, the DS still clearly dominates. The iPhone OS however is making inroads and has now grown to around 30% the size of Nintendo’s with no signs of letting up.

With signs also pointing to the App Store becoming a billion dollar property, there’s even more reason for Nintendo to see Apple as a significant competitive threat.

Theoretically Similar Posts:

• Nintendo dominating gaming sales but here comes Apple
• Gaming on iPhone
• It’s Over (or just beginning): iTunes is DRM-Free
• 999 million Apps and counting…
• The Tablet Sweet Spot