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Apple (News - Alert) today announced that people bought more than 1 million of its iPhone 3G units over the weekend and that users of the device and iTouch downloaded more than 10 million applications from the company’s new App Store.

 

The figures mark a strong showing for a much-hyped device that went on sale in 21 countries on Friday.

 

Apple Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs called it “a stunning weekend.”

 

“It took 74 days to sell the first one million original iPhones, so the new iPhone 3G is clearly off to a great start around the world,” Jobs said.

 

Apple officials say the new iPhone 3G combines “all the revolutionary features” of iPhone with third-generation networking – a capability that emerged as a shortcoming during the iPhone’s initial deployment last year, in many customers’ eyes.

 

The iPhone includes built-in GPS for expanded location-based mobile services, Apple officials say, and iPhone 2.0 software, which includes support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync. The device runs more than 800 third party applications available through the new App Store, company officials say. In the United States, the new iPhone 3G is priced at $199 for the 8GB model, and $299 for the 16GB model.

 

For some, the sales reports aren’t surprising.

 

A telecom marketing company based in the United Kingdom is calling for sales of the new iPhone to surpass Apple’s stated goal of 10 million sold by year’s end.

 

According to officials from Informa Telecoms & Media, sales will pass the 12 million mark.

 

“Added to the estimated 2.2 million 2.5G versions sold in 2008, this brings a cumulative total of 14.4 million for the year,” officials at the firm say. “The signs are good for 2009, particularly if Apple can secure deals to Chinese and Russian operators before the end of 2008, but Informa Telecoms & Media (News - Alert) believes next year’s iPhone 3G sales will not exceed 20 million at best.”

 

Gadget-lovers had been salivating for months about the possibility of an improved iPhone, and got their fill when Jobs unveiled the device at a developers’ conference in San Francisco last month.

 

The device reportedly is thinner at the edges, has a black plastic back and metal buttons on its side. The screen is the same and it has a camera, flush headphone jack and an improved audio system.

 

Importantly, the new iPhone has faster download times – an improvement that’s addressing the original iPhone’s most widely reported criticism.

 

GPS capability was one of those featured capabilities, as was integration with eBay (News - Alert), integration with Loopt, a location-based application that blends social networks with maps, and integration with another application that lets users create posts and photos and add them from a library to an iPhone on the go.

 

What may be the most impressive thing about the weekend’s statistics is that so many of the devices were sold despite widely reported problems activating them at outlets – a problem that may have been unanticipated, given that users activated their own original iPhones last year.

 

A gadgets blog reported that it had heard many accounts now from different U.S. Apple store and AT&T (News - Alert) locations that employees are having problems while trying to activate phones through iTunes.

 

According to Gizmodo, a Gawker Media blog that says it sees about 50 million page views per month: “From Atlanta, one camper reports, “A ‘teal shirt’ Apple (News - Alert) representative came out to let us know they are having difficulty accessing accounts on the iTunes system. The line has been amazingly slow, but at least we are inside! In the last maybe 30 minutes only 5 people got into the store. Time to get comfy.”