Apple tally 160 million iOS device sales

Apple announced that they have sold over 160 million devices, powered by the iOS mobile operating system. Many critics are asking why they aren't dropping the price of the iPhone, with average prices now set at $625 per unit.

Apple held a conference call yesterday and KitGuru was there to report. Tim Cook, Apple's chief operating officer said that 160 million iOS devices have been sold as of December. iOS is the software that powers the iPod Touch, Ipad, Apple TV and iPhone.

iOs has been an integral part of Apple's success in the mobile sector and Cook said that their primary competitors Google, can't match iOS, even with the latest Android code.

He said “We think that our integrated approach is much better for the end user, because it takes out all of the complexity for the end user, instead of making the end user a systems integrator themselves, I don't know about you, but I don't know many people who want to be systems integrators.”

Sales of iOS devices continues to climb with Apple selling over 100 million last June. The biggest selling single product is the iPhone which sold 16.2 million units in the last quarter alone – staggering figures. Apple also said that the average selling price of their smartphones are increasing over time. A topic which has started a hot bed of debate.

In the states Apple's ASP was $625 with carrier subsidies – which generally cover the bulk of the cost when a consumer purchases a new phone with a two year contract. Looking back, the ASP in Q3 of 2010 was $595.

Even with a staggering 16.2 million iPhones sold in the quarter, Apple couldn't meet public demand – a situation few companies find themselves in.

$10.5 billion was generated from iPhone sales in the last quarter which accounted for a large percentage of the $26.74 billion in total revnue. The iPhone alone grew 86 percent in sales in the December quarter and Apple were keen to point out that it is now being used in 88 of the Fortune 100 companies.

Verizon in the US are getting a CDMA version of the iPhone from February 10th and Cook said “We are truly thrilled to be working with the Verizon team. They have built quite a company and earned a great deal of respect from their customers, and some of them have waited a long time to get the iPhone.”

KitGuru says: This will be an interesting year for Apple, they had such a strong 2010 and it looks as if 2011 will be even better.

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