iPhone sales top 8 million

IMEI number collecting exercise shows Apple will hit target

3 September 2008 15:16 GMT / By Amy-Mae Elliott

iPhone sales could be well on their way to Steve Jobs' aim of shifting 10 million handsets inside 2008, a research project has revealed.

Stats from a joint project between AFB and Investor Village's AAPL Sanity board suggest Apple has sold 8 million mobiles so far this year.

The project has been "collecting" the IMEI numbers of every iPhone 3G they can and recording them on a speadsheet.

By tracking the sequence of IMEIs they can apparently conclude that Aple has made at least 5,649,000 iPhone 3Gs.

Apple has already sold 2.4 million of the original iPhones in the first half of 2008, which brings the tally to around the 8 million mark.

If sales continue at the same rate, the 10 millionth iPhone will be sold in September, ahead of the company's target.