“It looks like the iPhone 4 might be their Vista, and I’m okay with that.“
That was Microsoft COO Kevin Turner during his keynote speech this past July at the company’s Worldwide Partner Conference in Washington. To be exact, he gave that speech on July 14, two days before Apple’s “Antennagate” press conference. At that point, talk about the iPhone 4’s antenna was at a fever pitch. And there were plenty who (foolishly) believed Apple would have to do a recall.
At the time, we noted that this statement was likely going to come back to bite Turner in the ass. Well, here it is, teeth sharpened and hungry for undersides.
Yesterday, Apple announced their Q4 2010 earnings. It was basically record numbers across the board (aside from iPods, a shrinking business). But the most impressive number of all was definitely the number of iPhones sold last quarter: 14.1 million.
Not just a new record, a new record far beyond anything Apple had ever seen before. A number so big that it pushed Apple past RIM in terms of smartphone sales.
When you compare it to a year ago, Apple sold nearly twice as many iPhones (14.1 million versus 7.4 million). When you compare it to the previous quarterly record for iPhone sold, Q2 of this past year, Apple sold well over 5 million beyond even that number (8.75 million). Any way you slice it, the iPhone sales, led by the iPhone 4, were amazing.
In other words, the iPhone 4 is pretty much the opposite of Microsoft’s Vista nightmare.
This is a little bit like when Palm investor Roger McNamee predicted that once the Palm Pre came out, no one would be using the iPhone anymore. Yeah, that didn’t work out so well either.
I’m also reminded of another Microsoftie’s comments about the iPhone around the time of its launch. “There’s no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance,” CEO Steve Ballmer said. At the time, Microsoft’s Windows Mobile platform was doing quite well for itself in the burgeoning smartphone market place. Since then, it has completely collapsed into a blue screen of death and had to be rebooted this year as Windows Phone 7.
Total sales for Windows Phone 7 last quarter? Approximately 14.1 million less than the iPhone, Apple’s “Vista”.
[image: Castle Rock Entertainment]