The iPhone Looks Back on Five Years of Success

Published Mon, Jul 2nd, 2012   Wall Street Daily Research

 

The iPhone is celebrating its fifth birthday this week, and Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) has plenty to celebrate.

Since the initial phone’s launch, over a quarter billion iPhones have been shipped across the world. That’s enough to extend around 70% of the earth.

Beyond the iPhone’s sales, though, it’s also worth celebrating what the device has done for the broader economy.

For instance, Beth Ann Bovino, Senior Economist at Standard & Poor’s, speaks of how the iPhone can boost productivity for businesses:

“You can do your emails from your iPhone for work. You can edit reports from your iPhone. You can do a lot of other factors that certainly helped productivity here and abroad. That’s a positive sign of course… you still have to turn off your [game] of Angry Birds to be able to do that work. And if you do so, this is a positive for growth.”

Not to mention that the device has inspired an entire new industry – apps.  The popularity of applications on smartphones has created almost half a million jobs.

But increased competition from Google’s (Nasdaq: GOOG) Android devices might put a damper on the birthday festivities.