Most media pundits are suggesting that somewhere between 500,000 and 700,000 iPhones were sold in the US in the week since it's launch.

Which made me wonder about the iPod... so a little bit of research via wiki led to this:

The iPod broke the 500,000 units shipped/sold benchmark during the 1st financial quarter of 2003, the fifth quarter of availability. (595,000 units sold to the end of that quarter)

So the iPhone has shipped/sold in 7 days what took the iPod 15 months to achieve.

It's interesting to note that iPod sales dropped to below half of the initial quarter's sales for both the next two quarters before ramping up again... something I'm sure the iPhone will also follow after the pent up demand is satisified.

Unfortunately, I don't think the iPhone will go up again unless they come out with a Rev B. People in the US don't like spending any more than $300 for any kind of phone, and the fact that you pretty much need a 2 year service contract with AT&T are deterring people away. Supply is already meeting the demand which is never a good sign if they want a hit product. Should have done it the Wii style... play with the public a bit by taking the need level to a boiling point.

If you haven't seen it already, you may like to watch The iPod Revolution, from the Discovery Channel. Quite a simple, non-emotive (but enthused) report of the iPod's history.

i reckon much of this is to do with iPods previous track record. When iPhone was introduced, people were comfortable with apple personal devices (not computers) and thus were more likely to buy a product from a company with experience in that area.

When iPod first came out, no one knew what it was all about, i guess that created aprehension for buyers.

Will be interesting to see how the next few quarters play out.

W2ttsy