How Much Money Has Every iPhone Made?

The iPhone money list below shows sales dollars for each iPhone in order of release. Total iPhone sales top $621 billion by Apple’s sales reports. The biggest seller yet is the iPhone 6s with an estimated $90 billion in revenue. Apple doesn’t publish exact sales figures for individual iPhone models, but they do share total iPhone revenue by quarter. The individual dollar figures for each iPhone shown below are estimates based on Apple’s own sales reports plus rough online estimates from sources for units sold per model and each phone’s relative popularity. Apple announced in July of 2016 that they had sold over one billion units.

 

How Much Money Every iPhone Has Made: $621.7 Billion

The table and chart below show the total iPhone money for every iPhone ever released. All in all it comes to $621.7 billion, according to Apple’s quarterly financial reports. Breaking those figures down into the money made from each model means dividing up each quarterly total based on which models were selling at the time and the relative popularity of each. That takes a little estimating, but the table below shows a good rough breakdown. The first iPhone did $1.2 billion in sales. The second, $7.48 billion. That’s a 500% total money increase from the first phone to the second, even though the price point of the second phone was roughly half. From there, the revenue brought in each successive year increased dramatically, though in later years there were multiple models making up the total. The chart groups model numbers released in the same year together, seeing them as different sides of the same coin.

iPhone Money Made by Year
YearNewest iPhoneUnits SoldRevenue
2007iPhone1,390,000$123,000,000
2008iPhone 3G11,630,000$1,844,000,000
2009iPhone 3Gs20,730,000$13,033,000,000
2010iPhone 439,990,000$25,179,000,000
2011iPhone 4s72,300,000$45,998,000,000
2012iPhone 5125,060,000$78,692,000,000
2013iPhone 5c, 5s150,260,000$91,279,000,000
2014iPhone 6, 6 Plus169,220,000$101,991,000,000
2015iPhone 6s, 6s Plus231,220,000$155,041,000,000
2016*iPhone SE, iPhone 7179,000,000$108,540,000,000
Totals1,000,800,000$621,720,000,000
Total iPhone Money Made$621,720,000,000
*Does not include iPhone 7 sales.

iphone money by model number

1. iPhone (First Generation): $1.23 Billion

First on the iPhone money list by date only, the first generation iPhone was a huge hit at the time but nevertheless holds last place for earnings. The phone was released in late June of 2007. It sold a reported 5.4 million units by the time its successor, the iPhone 3G, was released about a year later in July of 2008. Apple doesn’t release exact sales figures for each phone, but some reverse-engineering from the sales figures they do release gives a solid estimate of $1.23 billion in revenue from the first iPhone ever. In the year the phone first hit the market, Apple reported total revenue of $24 billion, with most of that from sales of Mac laptops and desktops. Steve Jobs first tasked Apple engineers with making touchscreen tech a mass market reality in 2005, at a time when other phones all had keypads. The phone’s impending release was announced less than two years later in January of 2007 to widespread excitement. According to reports, six of every ten Americans surveyed knew about the phone before it hit the market. By the time the phone was discontinued it had sold over six million units.

iphone money 3g

2. iPhone 3G: $7.48 Billion

The second entry on the iPhone money list is the iPhone 3G, released in July of 2008. It’s the 11th best selling iPhone ever. The phone took in $7.48 billion in total revenue before Apple discontinued it on June 7 of 2010. The phone sold over a million units in its first weekend. By the time it left the market two years later it had sold well over 15 million units. The phone was billed as “the first phone to beat the iPhone” and “twice as fast for half the price.” The device was one of the first phones that could allow the user to hold a phone conversation while surfing the web simultaneously.

Related: How Much is YouTube Worth?

3. iPhone 3GS: $14 Billion

The iPhone 3GS is third lowest on our list of iPhone money makers with $14 billion. It’s the 10th best selling iPhone on record. Released in June of 2009 and discontinued in September of 2012, the phone had a 3 megapixel camera and voice control. It sold over one million units by the first weekend and an estimated 21 million units in all. Twice as fast as its predecessor, it also introduced video capability to its camera and an internal digital compass. Some reviewers were nonplussed by the phone’s improvements, but the buying public certainly didn’t seem to share their lack of enthusiasm.

iphone 4 money made

4: iPhone 4: $26 Billion

Fourth up from the bottom on the list of iPhone money makers, the iPhone 4 was also the fourth model released. It’s #9 in terms of iPhone earnings. The device came out in June of 2010 and was discontinued more than three years later in September of 2013. The first iPhone 4 ever purchased was allegedly bought for $5,000 by a Gizmodo editor. The phone was reported “lost” by an Apple employee. Shortly thereafter, Gizmodo  claimed they had taken the device apart and published detailed specs on the phone. The editor’s home was searched and his computers seized, but by then the lost phone had been returned to Apple and no charges were filed. The phone boasted four times as many pixels as its predecessor and a higher clocking 800Mhz processor. Its 3-axis gyroscope added precision control for gaming.

iphone money made 4s

Related: 36 iPhone Apps That Will Save You Money Now

5: iPhone 4S: $47 Billion

At $47 Billion in revenue, the iPhone 4S is the next biggest earner on the iPhone money list. It’s the eighth best selling iPhone in history. The phone was released in October of 2011 and sold four million units in three days. By the time it was discontinued in 2014 it had sold an estimated 72 million units. The 5th generation iPhone was 4.5 x 2.3 inches, with 512 MB of memory. It was available in 8, 16, 32 and 64 GB versions. It was hailed as a marked improvement over the iPhone 4. Reviewers pointed to the new camera, faster processing speeds and a new camera as points in the phone’s favor.  Another big boon for the device was the addition of Siri, the phone’s voice control feature. AT&T has stated that in the first quarter of 2012 nearly 80% of all the phones it sold were iPhones.

6. iPhone 5: $80 Billion

The sixth iPhone ever released once again broke the iPhone money record, with $80 billion for the iPhone 5. That makes it the third best selling iPhone ever. The phone came out in September of 2012 and was discontinued one year later. It sold two million units in the first 24 hours of the pre-order process and five million in the first three days of full release. The 16GB model sold for $649. The cost to produce the phone’s most basic model was estimated at about $207. After marketing and distribution costs, that still gave Apple a healthy profit. J.P. Morgan’s head economist Michael Feroli is reported to have said that sales of the phone could boost the US GDP by $12.8 billion per year.

iPhone Money Made by Year

The table and chart below show iPhone money made by year. From 2007 to 2008, sales of all iPhone models increased by 1399%. The next year, sales increased by 606%. Even discounting those first two years as outliers, sales of the runaway phones cranked up by an average of 54% per year. The lowest jump so far was in 2013, when sales “only” went up by 11.7%. If 2016 were over, sales would have dropped 30% for the first time ever, but of course the year is far from finished. The iPhone 7 was announced on September 7. Sales of that phone will almost certainly continue to boost iPhone’s 2016 earnings even higher.

Starting in 2007, there was a new iPhone model every year. Phones were generally discontinued after two years, meaning there were always from two to four iPhone models on the market at any given time. That fact alone makes it somewhat difficult to pull apart sales data for each individual phone. What we do have is quarterly and yearly data for all iPhone sales as a whole.

iPhone Money Made by Year
YearNewest iPhoneUnits SoldRevenue
2007iPhone1,390,000$123,000,000
2008iPhone 3G11,630,000$1,844,000,000
2009iPhone 3Gs20,730,000$13,033,000,000
2010iPhone 439,990,000$25,179,000,000
2011iPhone 4s72,300,000$45,998,000,000
2012iPhone 5125,060,000$78,692,000,000
2013iPhone 5c, 5s150,260,000$91,279,000,000
2014iPhone 6, 6 Plus169,220,000$101,991,000,000
2015iPhone 6s, 6s Plus231,220,000$155,041,000,000
2016*iPhone SE, iPhone 7179,000,000$108,540,000,000
Totals1,000,800,000$621,720,000,000
Total iPhone Money Made$621,720,000,000
*Does not include iPhone 7 sales.

iPhone Money Made by Year

7: iPhone 5c: $55 Billion

The iPhone 5c was the 7th iPhone released. It was the first iPhone model that didn’t break the record for biggest iPhone money maker yet. Most likely the failure to break the record wasn’t because of any flaw in the phone’s makeup but because it was released in the same year as another iPhone model: the iPhone 5s. The 5c was released in September of 2013 and discontinued two years later. The 4.9 x 2.3 inch phone had a 1.3 GHz dual-core CPU and 1 GB to 32 GB of memory. The 5c and 5s were announced at the same time and released at the same time, for the first time offering Apple’s phone buyers a choice between two brand new models. Taking the sales numbers for the 5c and 5s together,  Apple did indeed beat its own iPhone sales numbers from the previous year.

iphone 5s money made

8: iPhone 5s: $35 Billion

The iPhone 5s, released in September of 2013 alongside the 5c, earned an estimated $35 billion in revenue. The 5s was less expensive at $550 vs the 5s’ $650. The 5c came in more colors while the 5s had a more powerful processor. Taken together, both the 5c and 5s sold more than nine million units within three days of release. Some reviewers complained that the 5c was unnecessarily cheapened with much smaller memory and weak battery life. The 5s meanwhile had twice as much storage at 16GB, a much better camera and Touch ID, Apple’s fingerprint scanning feature. These features almost certainly account for the iPhone 5s outselling the 5c by a factor of three to one in the early days of release, a trend that only deepened as sales continued.

iphone 6 money made

Related: What’s the Cheapest iPhone?

9: iPhone 6: $90 Billion

The second best seller on the iPhone money list is the iPhone 6. The phone took in an estimated $90 billion in earnings from its release in September of 2014 until it was discontinued in September of 2016. The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus sold more than 10 million units its first weekend and shipped over 100 million by March of 2015. The “Bendgate” scare that alleged the phones bent easily under pressure didn’t seem to hurt the phone’s sales significantly, since Apple’s iPhone sales saw a 33% jump over the previous year’s models. The iPhone 6 had a 4.7 inch, 1334 x 750 display, 1.4 GHz CPU and from 1 to 64 GB of memory. As in the previous year, Apple released two models in the same month, though the choices were largely based on size, with the 6 Plus being the much larger option.

10. iPhone 6 Plus: $30 Billion

Released in September of 2014, the iPhone 6 Plus is the big sister to the iPhone 6. Taken together they are #2 in the iPhone money list, though taken separately the iPhone 6 Plus would be the 8th best-selling iPhone ever. The 6 Plus had many of the same specs as the 6 but a larger 5.5 inch display. Sales of the phone were reported as far less than the sales of the iPhone 6. This led some in the media to speculate that Apple goofed when they offered the larger phone, but if so the company doubled down on the “mistake.” Instead of backpedaling, they followed the same size and model pattern with the 6s/6s Plus and 7/7 Plus in the next two years.

iphone 6s money

11. iPhone 6s: $195 Billion

The iPhone 6s is so far #1 on the iPhone money list with $195 billion earned. The phone was released in September of 2015 and, in conjunction with the 6s Plus, sold 13 million units in the first weekend. The tagline “The only thing that’s changed is everything” didn’t hold true for several reviewers, who pointed out that the changes were relatively limited. As usual the complaints seemed to bounce off Apple’s sales armor, allowing the company to sell more phones at a higher price point than ever before. The phone retailed for $649 out of contract. The iPhone 6s did have a stronger aluminum alloy frame, fortified at key points, and claimed a 70% faster processing speed.

iphone 6s plus money

12. iPhone 6s Plus: $32 Billion

The iPhone 6s Plus is #1 on the iPhone money list when grouped with the iPhone 6s, but on its own it doesn’t fare quite as well. The device would be #7 on the list if taken singly. The phone had a larger screen than the 6s at 5.5 inches. Basically it was faster than the 6 Plus with better cameras, a pressure-sensitive 3D Touch display vs the 6 Plus and always-on Siri. In addition to all those features it was bigger than the 6s.

iphone money se

13. iPhone SE: $32 Billion

The iPhone SE comes in tied from #7 on the iPhone money list. Released in April of 2016, the phone was Apple’s answer to those customers who complained that the trend for ever larger phones was a pain in their pockets. Apple hasn’t yet released specific sales figures for the phone, but it has reportedly sold out as of September of 2016. The phone is Apple’s cheapest iPhone available.

Will the iPhone 7 break Apple’s sales records yet again? It’s too early to tell, but with the Samsung Galaxy Note 7’s battery woes, the situation looks ripe for another iPhone money coup.

Sources:

Statista – Apple iPhone Money by Quarter

Apple sells one billionth iPhone