iPhone 3G Sales Surpass 2G: That Was Quick

Just seven weeks after its introduction, the iPhone 3G will sell 7 million units. It took the first generation iPhone more than a year to reach that mark, and 3G models now surpass 2G model sales.

As we keep saying, the iPhone still only represents less than 1 percent of the U.S. cellphone market (in units sold), but it is growing quickly. Apple is on pace to sell 40 million devices in the next year, and about 800,000 iPhones are being manufactured per day by Apple’s OEM partner Foxconn.

With the lowered price and mass market appeal of the device, we’ll see this adoption grow quickly in a way that could mirror that of the iPod. Michael Arrington meanwhile poses a good question: “At what point is it no longer considered a niche device in the cellphone world?”

The early movers in the AppStore will be well positioned to capture usage, search volume and exposure, and traffic to their online brands. UrbanSpoon is an example of this, having been essentially put on the map for lots of users through its iPhone app and its clever association with the Apple/iPhone halo effect.

Meanwhile, the AppStore is pulling in about $1 million per day. This is primarily from downloads of paid apps though the majority of overall downloads are free. Most of the local search apps (example) are in the free category, with the thought that — like online local search — the payoff will come after considerable usage makes ad support more attractive.

This thought was echoed by each of the iPhone app developers that sat on TKG’s mobile local search panel at SES last week (Yelp, UrbanSpoon, TheFind, NearbyNow). More also from our previous post and recent iPhone report (sub req.). And much more iPhone coverage to come.