Iphone sales exceed all smartphone sales in the US for July!

Sept. 4 (Bloomberg) — Apple Inc.'s iPhone, the wireless handset that doubles as a music player, became the best-selling advanced U.S. mobile phone in its first full month of sales, research firm iSuppli Inc. said.

Apple sold 220,000 units in July, 1.8 percent of all U.S. mobile-phone sales, El Segundo, California-based iSuppli said today. The firm estimates that customers in 2007 will buy 4.5 million of the phones, which went on sale June 29.

Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs's goal is to sell 730,000 iPhones this quarter, for a total of 1 million through September. The Cupertino, California-based company has forecast sales of 10 million units in calendar 2008, to capture 1 percent of the mobile-phone market from rivals such as Research In Motion Ltd. and Motorola Inc.

“It's likely that the speed of the iPhone's rise to competitive dominance in its segment is unprecedented in the history of the mobile handset market,'' iSuppli said in the statement.

Apple rose $5.68, or 4.1 percent, to $144.16 at 4 p.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. San Antonio-based AT&T Inc., which has exclusive rights to sell the phone, climbed 41 cents to $40.28 on the New York Stock Exchange.

The iPhone topped July sales of Research In Motion's BlackBerry devices, Palm Inc.'s Treo handsets and advanced phones from Motorola, Nokia Oyj and Samsung Electronics Co., iSuppli said. Advanced phones, also known as “smartphones,'' are designed to send and receive e-mail, browse the Web and, in some instances, run software.

Jaffray Estimates

ISuppli's conclusions, released in a statement today, are based on a monthly online survey of a panel of 2 million U.S. participants.

A Piper Jaffray & Co. analyst said Apple probably surpassed its estimates for iPhone sales. Apple may sell about 804,000 iPhones in the quarter, analyst Gene Munster wrote in a note to investors.

AT&T is using the phone to lure customers from competitors such as Verizon Wireless, co-owned by Verizon Communications Inc. and Vodafone Group Plc. About one-fourth of iPhone buyers switched to AT&T from other mobile carriers, iSuppli said.

Original story from bloomberg.