Jobs: Over 1 million new iPhones sold

The sales figure even prompted Apple CEO Steve Jobs to make his first public comment since going on medical leave early this year.

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

The 1 million mark outpaces the estimate of at least one analyst, Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster, who predicted that 500,000 3G S phones would sell in the first weekend. The original iPhone sold about 270,000 units over its first weekend in June 2007, while the iPhone 3G sold around 1 million when it launched in July 2008. (And while Apple sold the iPhone 3G in 21 countries in its first day last year, the 3G S was available in only eight countries at launch.)

The 3.0 update for the iPhone and iPod Touch, which hit the iTunes store on Wednesday, has also found a wide audience among users who were awaiting new features, including copy and paste, landscape mode support for more applications, and the Spotlight search tool.