T-Mobile stated yesterday that they have now sold their one millionth G1 in a period of about 6 months. That’s very cool, but we really need to put that into perspective:

Originally, the T1 was said to have pre-sold 1.5 million units at launch.  That figure proved to be incorrect.

Apple sold 1 million iPhones (original) in just 74 days while only being available in the U.S. exclusively on AT&T.

The iPhone 3G sold 1 million units in it’s first weekend on the market.

Apple has sold about 21 million phones in just under 2 years on the market and are selling about 8 million units every 6 months.

As of early 2009, Microsoft has said it has sold about 50 million units over the Windows Mobile lifetime (HTC claims to have made about 40 million of those).  Wikipedia says Windows Mobile started with Pocket PC 2000 making it about 9 years old – with the Windows Mobile Name taking over in 2003).  Depending on how you define “Windows Mobile Lifetime”, it’s either 6 years old or 9 years old.  So the 50 million the figure is interesting, but still not impressive compared to Apple’s sales numbers.

So it’s nice to see T-Mobile succeeding, but those numbers really just aren’t that impressive. 1 million units in six months these days makes the G1 still just a niche market. Worse – apparently reports have said sales may have plateaued for the product – T-Mobile’s subscriber growth is half of what it was a year ago.

T-Mobile views the sales figures as a success in light of it’s smaller market.

What do you think?  Most people feel that the iPhone was a market-changing device – especially in the area of user interfaces.  Is the G1 chanking the market similarly?  Some argue that the G1′s physical clunkiness is part of the problem.  Will future Android-based phones sell better?  Is it still relevant?  And what about the upcoming Palm Pre?