Apple: 1 million iPhones sold

It seems like only yesterday that Apple had sold its first 270,000 iPhones -- not a bad tally for just a little bit more than the first day on the market.

Monday morning, a little more than two months after the the much-lusted-after gadget went on sale, Apple said in a brief press release that it had sold its one millionth iPhone.

"One million iPhones in 74 days," Apple CEO Steve Jobs exulted in a press release. "It took almost two years to achieve this milestone with iPod."

Last week, Jobs unveiled the new iPod Touch, which mimics the look and behaviour of the iPhone.

"We can't wait to get this revolutionary product into the hands of even more customers this holiday season," Jobs said in Monday's press release.

Just how many hands the iPhone actually is in at this point is a little unclear, Apple's ballyhooing of 1 million sold notwithstanding. If Apple sold 270,000 or so in the waning hours of June, as it claimed, and then 220,000 in July, as market research iSuppli reported last week, that's 490,000 units. Which means the company would have needed a sales surge of more than a half-million iPhones in the six weeks or so since August 1.

Editor's note: The iPhone is due to be released in Australia in 2008.