Apple has reached a milestone in its history by shipping its 3 billion iPhone. The announcement came directly from Apple CEO Tim Cook during the company’s earnings call for the third quarter of 2025.
This new record shows the iPhone’s ongoing global success since it first launched in 2007. At that time, smartphones were new to most people, but now the iPhone has become one of the most widely used devices in the world.
Tim Cook shared the news during the company’s Q3 2025 earnings call, saying, “We recently marked a significant milestone. We shipped the three-billionth iPhone since its launch in 2007.”
This marks a major achievement for Apple and shows how deeply the iPhone connects to everyday life around the world. Apple shipped its first billion iPhones by 2016 and hit the 2 billion mark by 2021. Just four years later, the company has now passed the 3 billion iPhones mark.
The company reported $94 billion in revenue for the third quarter of 2025. That’s a 10 percent increase compared with the same period last year last year. A reason behind this growth is the iPhone 16 series, which has quickly become Apple’s most popular iPhone lineup yet.
Tim Cook said the iPhone 16 lineup is currently the most popular in the world. He mentioned that sales of the iPhone 16 grew in strong double digits when compared to the iPhone 15 lineup last year.
He explained that many people upgraded their phones because they liked the new features, camera improvements, and updated design. Customers have well received the iPhone 16, 16 Plus, 16 Pro, and 16 Pro Max.
During the earnings call, Apple said it made $44.6 billion from iPhone sales alone. That’s nearly half of the total revenue for the quarter and shows a 13 percent increase in iPhone revenue year-over-year.
Cook said, “iPhone revenue was strong because the iPhone 16 is more popular compared to the iPhone 15 devices on sale last year at the same time.” He added that many current iPhone users decided to upgrade to the new version, helping boost sales even further. Some experts believe that part of the sales jump came from concerns about future price increases due to U.S. tariffs.
Apple should be very pleased with the folks who spread the lies that the iPhone will cost $3000 or $25,000 if made in the U.S. Clearly that helped a ton for the June quarter.
— Mark Gurman (@markgurman) July 31, 2025Mark Gurman, a reporter for Bloomberg, noted on social media that many customers may have rushed to buy iPhones because they feared prices would go up. He said, “Apple should very pleased with the people who spread the lies that the iPhone will cost $3,000 or $25,000 if companies make it in the U.S.” Clearly, that helped a ton for the June quarter.”
These rumors appear to have had an impact. According to Cook, tariffs already cost Apple $800 million in the quarter that ended in June. He added that the cost could rise to $1.1 billion by the end of the next quarter in September. Despite this financial pressure, Apple managed to beat analyst expectations across the board, including revenue, earnings per share, and iPhone sales.
