Apple Has Sold Over 1 Billion iPhones

Apple has sold over one billion iPhones since first introducing the device in 2007, the company announced Wednesday. Apple CEO Tim Cook first made the announcement during an employee meeting at the company's Cupertino campus, saying that the company surpassed the billion phone milestone last week.

Selling more than a billion phones is impressive for Apple, which has long been one of the most successful smart phone manufacturers. Worldwide, only Samsung sells more smart phones than Apple. Throughout 2015, Samsung sold close to 320 million phones, compared to Apple's 231.5 million, according to data from Strategy Analytics.

Apple also competes with a number of other Android handset manufacturers. Google said a year ago that Android was being used by 1.3 billion users every single month. Perhaps in anticipation of these comparisons, Cook said: "We never set out to make the most, but we've always set out to make the best products that make a difference."

Apple made the milestone announcement just a day after releasing its fiscal Q3 of 2016 earnings results, which saw iPhone sales decline by 15 percent year-over-year.