iPhone: Reports of My Failure Have Been Greatly Exaggerated

Let’s hold off on those gloomy pronouncements about the iPhone’s adoption rate for just a little while longer, OK? In the wake of Tuesday’s news that AT&T activated 146,000 iPhones at launch, the “Apple-is-doomed” crowd began its predictable round of panicky pronouncements about the iPhone failing to meet expectations. Nice story, but it overlooks two important things:

1. The activation figures only represent the first 30 hours of the iPhone’s release, and we already knew there were some activation delays that first weekend; and

2. Activations ain’t sales.

Apple addressed that second point Wednesday, announcing its fiscal third quarter results. The company says it sold 270,000 iPhones, again for the 30 hours that the iPhone was on sale during the third quarter. That’s still short of the more fanciful forecasts, but it’s still nothing for Apple to hang its head over.

To put that 270,000 figure in context, Apple Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook told analysts in the subsequent phone briefing that AT&T informed Apple it had sold more iPhones in that first weekend than it had sold in the first month of any other wireless device in the company’s history. Furthermore, Apple expects to sell its 1 millionth iPhone by the end of the September quarter — it took the company seven quarters to reach that figure with the iPod, and nobody would seriously argue that device was a disappointment.

That’s one man’s take, of course. What do you think of the iPhone sales figures? A strong showing for the first day or so or a sign of trouble on the horizon for Apple?