6.9 million iPhones sold in Q4 2008

Apple’s Q4 Conference Call announcement brought us some astonishing iPhone news today. While the company posted a profit of $1.14 billion on revenues of $7.9 billion for the quarter, their sales figures for their devices were off the roofs. In the Q4 of 2008, Apple managed to sell 6,892,000 iPhone 3Gs compared to the 1,119,000 iPhones in Q4 of 2007. With this, the company has already surpassed its goal of 10 million iPhones in 2008, with a good 3 months in advance.

These sales figures have now ranked Apple as the world’s third largest mobile phone supplier in terms of revenue. In fact, Apple sold more iPhone 3Gs than RIM’s entire BlackBerry lineup taken together. The only obvious companies holding the first two places are Nokia and Samsung respectively.

So how well a decision was the introduction of the iPhone for Apple? Even though Apple had ventured into unknown territory, the iPhone being their first mobile handset, it now contributes about 39% of the company’s total business.