‘iPhone 3G had a stunning opening weekend’ says Steve Jobs

The new iPhone 3G broke the one million mark during the first three days of sales (Friday-Sunday). Apple CEO Steve Jobs said, “It took 74 days to sell the first one million original iPhones, so the new iPhone 3G is clearly off to a great start around the world.”

Courtesy of Apple

Unlike the first iPhone, which was launched in the U.S., the iPhone 3G was made available in 21 countries simultaneously. Even with this larger customer base, hitting the one million mark in three days is well beyond what most analysts thought possible. Piper Jaffray, a leading technology analysis firm, predicted that Apple would hit the one million mark late in the month, not in the first three days.

Considering the many activation problems that were reported, the large number of sales shows a pent-up demand for the iPhone 3G. Early adopters, at least, were willing to put up with activation delays to get their hands on the latest from Apple.