Apple has now shipped 3 billion iPhones

Apple has shipped its three billionth iPhone, Tim Cook has revealed during a call for the company's third quarter earnings. The company released the first iPhone in 2007 and sold its billionth iPhone in 2016. It is believed to have shipped its two billionth sometime in 2021, and now only four years later, it has reached the new milestone. Apple's CEO said the iPhone enjoyed a double digit growth in the third quarter and that the company earned $94 billion in revenue, up 10 percent year over year. In a tweet, Apple expert Mark Gurman suggested that iPhone sales over the past quarter were driven by people who bought one out of fear that the device would be out of their reach in the future due to Trump's tariffs.

Speaking of tariffs, they cost the company $800 million in the quarter ending in June, Cook said during the call. In the next quarter ending in September, Apple believes tariffs will cost the company $1.1 billion.

Apple is slated to announce its next iPhone models in a matter of weeks, probably sometime in September like last year's devices. Gurman previously reported that Apple is releasing an iPhone 17 Air this generation to match the Air models of its other products. It will reportedly be an ultra-thin phone, as its designation implies, will have a single camera lens and be powered by a basic A19 chip. The phone could also be equipped with Apple's in-house modem that debuted with the iPhone 16e and come with a 6.6-inch screen. It could cost buyers around $900, which is around $100 more than the base iPhone 16 and is on par with the price of the iPhone 16 Plus.

In addition to announcing Apple's three billionth iPhone, Cook also announced during the call that the company is "significantly growing out investments" in artificial intelligence. He said an acquisition to boost its AI efforts and accelerate its roadmap wasn't out of the question, though he didn't name any specific company that Apple could potentially purchase.