Apple CEO Steve Jobs back on the job: Over 1 million iPhone 3G S units sold in first three days

Apple today announced that it has sold over one million iPhone 3GS models through Sunday, June 21, the third day after its launch. In addition, six million customers have downloaded the new iPhone 3.0 software in the first five days since its release.

MacDailyNews Note: The iPhone 3G S launch was only in eight countries vs. 21 countries for last year’s iPhone 3G debut.

“Customers are voting and the iPhone is winning,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO, in the press release. “With over 50,000 applications available from Apple’s revolutionary App Store, iPhone momentum is stronger than ever.”

MacDailyNews Note: He’s baaack: Apple CEO Steve Jobs has not been quoted in an Apple Inc. press release since January 21, 2009, one week after Apple issued a “Media Advisory” on January 14th announcing his medical leave of absence until the “end of June.” It’s typical Jobs style to “announce” his return with a simple quote in a press release.

The new iPhone 3GS is the fastest, most powerful iPhone yet, packed with incredible new features including improved speed and performance—up to twice as fast as iPhone 3G—with longer battery life, a high-quality 3 megapixel autofocus camera, easy to use video recording and hands free voice control. iPhone 3GS includes the new iPhone OS 3.0, the world’s most advanced mobile operating system with over 100 new features such as Cut, Copy and Paste, MMS, Spotlight Search, landscape keyboard and more. iPhone 3GS customers get access to more than 50,000 applications from Apple’s revolutionary App Store, the largest application store in the world where customers have already downloaded over one billion apps. iPhone 3GS offers twice the capacity for the same price with a 16GB model for US$199 and a new 32GB model for $299. And iPhone 3G is available for just $99 for the 8GB model — a significant milestone for the high end smartphone market.

Phillip Elmer-Dewitt reports for Fortune, “Earlier Monday several analysts had released their estimates of the 3G S’s weekend sales, including: Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster, 750,000 units; Kaufman Bros. Shaw Wu, 600,000; Oppenheimer’s Yair Reiner, 400,000 – 500,000.”

Full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Bloodbath.