Many of us who cover the telecom and IT media space were anticipating the arrival of the Apple iPhone (News - Alert) 3G S, and now reports are emerging that the industry is seeing stellar sales results.

 

According to Apple (News - Alert), the company sold 1 million iPhone 3G S phones in the device’s first three days, through Sunday, matching the same tally that iPhone 3G saw when it hit the market one year ago. Apple CEO Steve Jobs (News - Alert) said this in a statement: “Customers are voting and the iPhone is winning.” As a result, the momentum of the iPhone is stronger than ever.

 

Analysts estimated that the iPhone 3G S would perform strong in the market, but not nearly this strong. Piper Jaffray analyst, Gene Munster, predicted sales of 500,000 before upping his estimate to 750,000 early Monday – before Apple had announced its numbers.

Technology analyst Ezra Gottheil, was also among those industry experts who expected slower sales. Like Munster, Gottheil put figures at half a million. When asked about Apple’s final first weekend numbers, Gottheil claimed surprise as the first reaction as predicted numbers were off by 100 percent.

Gottheil did note that Apple’s sales were impressive, given the continued recession. He was quick to note that in hindsight, the company should not have been in shock – and in all reality, they may not be.

“What we’re seeing is the adoption curve for smartphones,” he said, in the Computerworld piece. “People are seeing that they’re useful. Apple didn’t start the smartphone business, but they made it fun and classy. Typical Apple.”

While sales of the iPhone 3G S may be as strong as the earlier model last year, the markets have changed. The company was able to achieve these sales figures in fewer markets, indicating that its marketing push has been successful in creating the necessary demand. The iPhone 3G S is currently only available in seven countries. When the iPhone 3G launched, it did so in more than 20 countries.

Gottheil noted that Apple was prepared to handle one million orders is even more impressive than the fact that they achieved this number at all. Since its release June 17th, Apple also said that approximately six million owners of older iPhones had downloaded the new iPhone 3.0 software.

This performance demonstrates that Apple is stronger than ever and the demand for its iPhone continues to grow. As the company continues to build on this winning platform and steps up the innovation that it offers, it will surely achieve market domination and may give RIM, the maker of the BlackBerry (News - Alert), something to worry about.