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Customers lined up to buy the iPhone 3G S in Santa Clara, Calif.
In his first public comments since taking a medical leave in January, Apple CEO Steve Jobs spoke out publicly Monday, at least in a news release, about the opening weekend box office for the iPhone 3G S.
The company reported that it had sold over 1 million of the new smartphones between the time it went on sale Friday morning, through Sunday.
“Customers are voting and the iPhone is winning,” said Jobs, in a prepared statement. “With over 50,000 applications available from Apple’s revolutionary App Store, iPhone momentum is stronger than ever.”
The company also stated that six million iPhone users have downloaded the new Apple iPhone 3.0 operating system since it became available June 17. The new OS comes standard with the 3G S but can be added to previous generation iPhones and the iPod Touch.
Secrecy has surrounded Jobs' medical condition since he announced in January that he would take a six-month medical leave to be treated for pancreatic cancer, for which he had previously been treated in 2004. Last Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Jobs received a liver transplant at a medical center in Tennessee two months earlier. Other media reports indicated that a liver transplant will help limit the chance that the cancer of the pancreas could spread to that organ.
Even though Jobs has been largely away from the office, Apple hasn't been hampered in its ability to bring products to market that dazzle its customers. Besides the iPhone 3G S and the new OS, Apple unveiled a refreshed line of its Mac Book Pro laptops, with enhanced features and performance but lower prices, at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference June 8 in San Francisco.
The million plus 3G S sales are an impressive start for the new iPhone, said Julien Blin, principal analyst and CEO of JBB Research, in Los Angeles, in an e-mail: "Apple well exceeded expectations as several Wall Street analysts were expecting 500,000 units sold over the weekend."
Despite the recession, he continued, "This once again demonstrates that Apple is macro-resistant." He also added that customer confidence in Apple and its products appears to be unaffected by concerns about Jobs' health.
I've reached out to Apple media relations to see what Jobs being quoted in a news release means about his job status and whether he's officially returned to work.
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