It took one month for France Telecom's Orange to sell 70,000 iPhones -- less than half the number of units sold in just a day and a half here in the U.S. The carrier on Thursday claimed this number is well within its projected sales target of 50,000 - 100,000 units in the first month. It's likely, however, the carrier altered that target once that 100,000 seemed less and less attainable. In a November interview with Europe 1 radio, France Telecom CEO Didier Lombard actually said the company hoped to sell 100,000 iPhones before the end of the year, not 50-100,000.
Sales aside, the iPhone's uncanny ability to lure new customers to carriers remains strong. Orange claims that new customers accounted for a staggering 48 percent of iPhone sales during that first month. That's even more impressive considering the company is also required by law to sell an unlocked version of the phone.
And if you were wondering how this news fits into the rumored 5 million iPhones Steve Jobs may or may not announce Apple has sold at MacWorld, the answer (for now) is not very well. The same sources that said Jobs will announce the 5 million milestone in 10 days, also said that that Europe is expected to contribute approximately one million iPhones to that number. If accurate, that would mean the U.K. and Germany have sold a combined total of 930,000 iPhones.
For its own part, O2 claims its on track to sell 200,000 iPhones by early January -- in line with Nov. 9 launch expectations. Some analyst firms, like Gartner, even claim this target is conservative, believing the number will be up around the 400,000 mark. Still, that's not even halfway there, and the only news we've heard out of Germany is that Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile sold 10,000 iPhones during the first day of sales.
Now it's entirely possible stellar holiday sales in the U.S. will make up for that difference, but still, 5 million is a lot of phones.
