Apple sold 3.704 million iPhones in 2007, 13.675 million iPhones in 2008, 25.09 million in 2009, and 47.49 million in 2010.
Horace Dediu calculated that iPhone sales double with every new model. That’s incredible in and of itself, but it’s not the whole story.
Most people measure growth using Year over Year and Quarter over Quarter metrics. Let’s look at the numbers in a non-traditional way.
In 2009 Apple sold more iPhones than they did in 2007 and 2008 combined. In 2010 they sold more than they did in 2007, 2008, and 2009 combined. In order to keep the pattern going, Apple will need to sell more than 90.229 million iPhones this year, a number I think they’ll easily beat.
Has a product so large ever grown so fast?