Analyst: Apple's Old Stuff Outsells Android's New Stuff

Though they’ve been surpassed in design and perfomance by their successors, Apple’s iPhone 3Gs and iPad 1 are still quite popular–so popular, in fact, that they outsell some of their newer Android rivals.

Canaccord Genuity analyst Michael Walkley says his retail checks show continued strong demand for the iPhone 3GS at AT&T and iPad 1 at Verizon, even as the iPhone 4 and iPad 2 continue to fly off the shelves. At AT&T, for example, the iPhone 3GS is outselling newer Android phones like the HTC Inspire and Motorola Atrix.

Says Walkley, “At AT&T, our checks indicated new Android smartphones primarily gained share from Windows 7 smartphones but not from the iPhone. Our checks indicated modest share gains for the HTC Inspire, but the Inspire gained share from the Windows phone 7 smartphones and the Motorola Atrix. As such, the iPhone 4 remained by far the best selling smartphone at AT&T and the 3GS remained a strong selling smartphone due to its $49 price.”

Not bad for a last-generation smartphone.

Of course, at $49 the 3Gs is half the price of the Inspire and a quarter of the price of the Atrix, so cost is obviously a big factor here. Still, the continued success of Apple’s older devices in the marketplace suggests that the company, which is already winning at the market’s higher end, has a good shot of winning at its lower end as well–particularly if it ever releases a lower-tier iPhone-–one free of the required $70+ a month voice-and-data service plan.