“We shipped the 3 billionth iPhone since its launch in 2007.” Tim Cook said it almost in passing, in his prepared remarks on Apple’s earnings call on July 31, 2025. 9to5Mac noted the milestone arrived with little fanfare.
The number matters partly because Apple has kept unit sales to itself since November 2018. At that time then-CFO Luca Maestri argued that the “number of units sold in a quarter is not representative of underlying state of business.” So a round figure from the CEO is rare.
How the billions stacked up
The first billion took nine years. In July 2016 Apple shipped iPhone number one billion, and Cook called the phone “one of the most important, world-changing and successful products in history.” The company never said when the second billion went out the door. Analysts put it around September 2021. The third billion followed in about four years, a faster pace than either of the earlier two.
The quarter behind it
The same call carried strong results. Cook said iPhone sales grew by double digits in the quarter to June, and revenue reached $94 billion, a 10 percent rise over the prior year. 9to5Mac said the company beat analyst expectations on revenue, earnings per share and iPhone revenue.
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman offered one theory for the jump. He suggested buyers rushed to purchase out of fear that tariffs would put the device out of reach, and wrote that people who spread claims of a $3000 or $25,000 iPhone made in the U.S. had helped sales. Tariffs cost Apple $800 million in the June quarter, Cook said, and the company expected them to cost $1.1 billion in the quarter ending in September.
AI spending and the next phone
Cook told analysts Apple is stepping up its AI investment sharply. An acquisition to speed up that roadmap was not out of the question, he said, though he named no target.
The next iPhones were due within weeks, probably in September, as in the year before. Gurman had reported that Apple would add an iPhone 17 Air to match the Air models elsewhere in its range: an ultra-thin phone with a single camera lens and a basic A19 chip. It might get Apple’s own modem, first seen in the iPhone 16e, plus a 6.6-inch screen, and cost buyers around $900. That would be roughly $100 above the base iPhone 16 and level with the iPhone 16 Plus.
Sources
- Tim Cook: Apple just sold its three-billionth iPhone (9to5Mac)
- Apple has now shipped 3 billion iPhones (Engadget)
- Apple has already sold more than 3 billion iPhones (GSMArena)
