Today is the 10th anniversary of the iPhone, the one device I can honestly say has revolutionised my life.
Prior to the launch of the iPhone back on the 29th of June 2007, I’d owned a number of not very smartphones. I’d had the Nokia 9000 and 9010 communicators which (this’ll make you laugh) supported fax. I had to have three mobile numbers back in those days – one for calls, one for the Internet and one for fax!
Later I owned HP iPAQs which were superb for email and became an inseparable part of my life, but it was only when the iPhone came along that smartphones really took off and the iPhone paved the way. It would be another two years until 2009 that I bought my first true smartphone, Vodafone’s HTC Magic ‘Google phone’. It’s unlikely that smart phones would have developed as fast without the foresight of Apple, so (although I’ve never owned one) the iPhone really did change the way I lived and worked forever.
Much changed with the birth of the iPhone, the typical Nokia ‘brick’ phone had a battery that’d last a week and even today smartphone manufacturers struggle to produce phones with batteries that’ll last a day. But then we have to remember that our phones do everything from social media updates hundreds of times a day, to navigation and live maps, news feeds, constant emails, playing music and countless other features that we simply take for granted. Today you can even leave house with just your mobile and make contactless payments in shops, travel on public transport and place a bid on eBay and that was unimaginable just a decade ago
Doubtless there will be a ton of interesting stories out today about the iPhone, but it’s interesting to take a look at their performance on eBay for some stats on how much the nation still loves them. Surprisingly on eBay UK, it’s the iPhone 5C – which came out in 2013 – that takes the crown as the most popular iPhone. The trusty model has seen more than 35 million searches in the past three years – that’s 22 every minute!
It’s worth remembering that eBay were one of the first businesses in the world to produce a smartphone app with the iPhone version being the first. It was perhaps the last time that eBay really innovated in a seismic way as when they bet big on mobile they rode the crest of the wave leaving all competitors playing catch up and eBay is still the most successful smartphone app ever.
“Over the years we have seen the popularity of this iconic piece of tech grow exponentially, from customers checking the sale price they’d get for their old phone as new versions are released to snapping up the huge selection of unlocked, new products available. Whether it’s searching for the latest smartphone or accessorising for success with the incredible assortment of everything from portable chargers to fish eye lenses on site – eBay.co.uk is the one stop shop for iPhones and accessories this anniversary.”
– Murray Lambell, eBay Senior Director, UK Trading
10 stats on the iPhone from eBay UK
- Since the launch of the iPhone in 2007, sales of the product have jumped by 5000% with eBay seeing 16,000 searches in that first year – compared to 835,000 in 2016
- In 2011, the year Snapchat was first released, the online marketplace saw a massive increase in demand for iPhone accessories. Selfie sticks proved particularly popular as Brits were sick of straining to get the right angle, with searches increasing from 8 in 2010 to a huge 37,000 in 2011
- In the last three years Brits have spent more than 830 million minutes searching for the perfect iPhone on eBay, with an average search time of 45 minutes and more than 17 million searches in total
- When it comes to the most popular iPhone model, the 5c takes the crown – with more than 35 million searches in the past three years, followed by the iPhone 6 model
- And it seems Britain is a nation of bargain hunters, with Black Friday proving the peak day to bag an iPhone 6 with sales reaching 283 thousand
- The average price an iPhone will go for on eBay is £235 and the average Brit will spend £23 on iPhone accessories per year, including; selfie sticks, headphones, chargers and cases
- Sunday is the most popular day for Brits to browse for iPhone models and accessories – specifically between 9pm – 11pm
- In the last year Brits have spent more than 730 million minutes on site searching for the perfect iPhone accessories – that’s enough time to watch the Lord of the Rings trilogy one million times
- Over the same time period, more than 530 million people have used an iPhone to shop on eBay.co.uk – that’s more than the population of Russia and America combined
- Today, there are 7 million iPhone related products on site with more than 5 million items sold in the last three months – that’s nearly one every second.
