In it’s first three days alone, Apple’s new ‘must have’ iPhone 4 sold 1.7 million units. Doing the math, that’s 394 iPhones sold per minute, or 6.5 iPhone sold per second, if you like. This can only be seen as yet another ‘WIN!’ for Apple, and the armies of iPhone app developers that stand behind the new device.
“This is the most successful product launch in Apple’s history,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO.
Looking at Apple’s previous iPhone history, in 2008 the first iPhone 3G moved approximately 1 million units in it’s first weekend of sales. Not too shabby. One year later, with their iPhone 3GS, Apple did it again, repeating the previous years’ sales numbers. Apple’s much larger sibling that doesn’t make phone calls, aka the iPad, which launched in April of this year sold 3 million units in it’s first three months.
Featuring a number of “Ooo! Do Want!” features including the new Retina display, a 5 megapixel camers with LED flash, the A4 processor, a 3 axis gyro, 40 percent longer talk time, oh – and just for good measure, a 720p HD video recorder built in, the iPhone 4 is the hot ticket this summer. All of these features, and lest we forget the FaceTime video phone calling feature is packaged inside a revolutionary glass and steel case (that according to Steve Jobs, we’re all holding incorrectly).
And while all these new features are great, what do they mean to the games development industry? Surely, someone’s got to be working on some fanciness in regards to the FaceTime uses, but for now, popular iPhone games maker ngmoco is focusing on the 3 axis gyro. They recently released Eliminate: GunRange specifically designed for the iPhone 4 and taking advantage of pitch, roll, and yaw. Let’s be clear, the new 3 axis gyro is in addition to the accelerometer and previous left right axis previous generations of iPhone have had, thus making the new handheld gaming phone, a 6 axis controller.
With over 40,000 games available in the Apple Store, making it the largest category, just slightly ahead of books, developers of said titles will probably be resting just a little bit better at night now.
Not available in Europe until a projected end of July date, the iPhone 4 retails in the US for $199 for the 16GB model and $299 for the 32 GB.
