The best selling product of all time

Measuring the iPhone Uno

Ten years ago, I noted that the iPhone was the most popular product of all time. At the time, it had just crossed 1 billion units sold. This exceeded the quantities of other categories I considered comparable. In the comments there was a furious debate on whether I was measuring popularity correctly. In my defense I pointed out that consumables should not count, nor free products or pieces of content. By the metrics of 2016, I argued, one billion sold exceeded any of the other candidate 'bestsellers'. And it wasn't even one thing...

The iPhone is not only the best-selling mobile phone but also the best-selling music player, the best-selling camera, the best-selling video screen and the best-selling computer of all time.

I noted that it did all that in less than nine years and challenged readers to wonder what it will do in the next nine.

Well, wonder no more.

Since then, another 2.4 billion iPhone have been sold. That is to say, after becoming the all-time best-seller, it accelerated to sell at 2.5x the previous run rate. Moreover, the first billion iPhones sold for an average price of $655 while the next 2.4 billion sold for $780 each.

To date, iPhone revenues have totaled $2.5 trillion.

One can again argue whether there are better candidates for "best-seller" but it would be futile. Not because of the quantity sold, nor because of the value created but because of the consequences of these sales. Quantities can be measured, qualities can't.

The iPhone changed culture and behavior. It's become an indispensable utility. It is infrastructure. And with anything so consequential, its value is hard to measure.

For this reason I'm always surprised by the discussions around pricing. The idea that users won't spend more than $x for a "phone" as if it were a discretionary expenditure. As the Covid period showed, these products are not nice to have. They are must-haves.

The utility has only increased: over 100 "pickups" per day, over 4 hours of use per day, over 5 billion (including ersatz iPhone) users. Trillions of Services and activities are built around it. And it's not finished growing.

That means that it's the most used product of all time. And if you are so attached to it, why would you not spend a bit more for a better version? It's literally the thing you hold and keep with you more than anything. It is more attached than our clothing or our housing and we don't hesitate much to obtain better versions of either.

The iPhone Uno was the quintessential $1/day product, or one penny per use. Now the iPhone Duo is offered for $2/day. But will it be used more or be better to use? If it is to gain another hour of use, or a dozen more pickups a day, or increase dwell time then surely the extra dollar is worth it.

Let's reflect on this in another decade but I have become convinced that the Duo is version 2 of the iPhone and as such it will become even more habituated to us and vice versa.