No official figures from Apple as of yet, but according to analyst Michael Cote, Apple has hit the 3 million mark one month after launch. What's more is that it seems the demand is not showing signs of slowing down. That's quite interesting, considering that Apple forecast "only" 10 million iPhones sold by the end of 2008, and they are apparently going forward in expanding sales to more countries.

In related news, Jobs stated in an interview that so far, 60 million pieces of software have been downloaded from the AppStore. Most of those apps were free, but apparently they've raked up about 30 million dollars of revenue, or about 1 million per day. Sega has sold 300 000 copies of Super Monkey Ball so far, at $9.99 / $7.99 a piece, netting them more than 2 million dollars of revenue.

"That's a substantial business," says Simon Jeffery, president of Sega's U.S. division. "It gives iPhone a justifiable claim to being a viable gaming platform."

30 million total revenue means 21 million revenue to 3rd parties, and the top 10 devs ended up taking 9 million of that. Apple themselves, according to Jobs, cover their expenses (credit card and other costs of operation) with the 30% they take. Similar to the iPods and iTunes store, it's about making the iPhone and iTouch more attractive. In fact, Jobs belives that the differentiating feature of phones will be software:

"Phone differentiation used to be about radios and antennas and things like that," Mr. Jobs said. "We think, going forward, the phone of the future will be differentiated by software."

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So, with 1 million revenue per day now, is it going to increase as more and more iPhones are sold? Or is this more of a launch craze type of thing that will settle down to a much smaller level? I have gotten a few iPhone games so far, and it's kind of ironic that the best ones have been free, though I have not bouth Super Monkey Ball or other "more expensive" games, just a couple of few dollar games so far. But for that limited sample, I'd say that the devs have not yet come to grasps with how to implement the UI for games in iPhone, apart from a few exceptions.

For other apps than games, though, the selection is quite amazing already.

Things have been looking up for Sega as of late... also good for Apple! I'm sure sales will stay strong for the next of the year, it will definitely sell more than 10m.

I'd say a little bit of both. Obviously people are going to be most interested in playing with their new gadget while it's new, but if demand for the iPhone remains strong, as the article suggests, then new users should pick up the slack from disinterested early adopters.

Super Monkey Ball has bagged $2 million in revenue already? Didn't Sega whip up the playable alpha build for that game in a week?

wow, the iphone is wiping the floor with the DS and Wii.

all will be proof when russel top comes out.

You're probably right, at least when it comes to apps other than games. Once I find a good app for what I need to do, then I'm done buying those apps, but for games it's obviously different and the sales of games should stay healthy over time, of course provided that the demographics are there to support gaming in general. What iPhone needs are good games made specifically for it, with some quality ports of existing IPs. What currently is the situation, IMO, is a boatload of games that can keep up my interest for no more than 5 minutes, and I regret paying even $.99 for a game like that. Especially when I can play Aurora Feint and Cube Runner for free to get my fix of quick gaming.

I don't know how long it took Sega to port the Super Monkey Ball, but judging by the comments from the WWDC, it seems that developing for iPhone is really easy and the tools are supposedly top notch. About the Super Monkey Ball revenue, 300 000 copies times $9.99 or €7.99 times 0.7 equals a minimum of 2.1 million dollars, but since the europrice is higher, it's probably a bit more, say 2.2 to 2.3 million dollars. I'd like a ROI like that :)