Apple managed to move some 4.4 million iPhone 3G units during its first fiscal quarter for 2009, but still came in below its 6.5 million units for the last quarter for 2008. Despite the lower quarterly numbers, Apple still took 48 percent of the U.S. and 32 percent of the worldwide smartphone market.

Peter Oppenheimer, Apple senior vice president and CFO, commented "We're proud of how rapidly iPhone has achieved such remarkably strong traction in the market. Based on its 2008 business wireless smart phone customer satisfaction study J.D. Power and Associates ranks the iPhone in overall customer satisfaction among business wireless smartphone users."

He added that the iPhone's U.S. smartphone market share for December 2008 beat the combined market share of RIM, Windows and Palm combined.

The overall lower sales figures, however, could be an indication that Apple needs to look for additional markets and retail channels to push its combination iPod and smartphone, or possibly that the weakening economy is taking its toll and that consumers are spending less on tech gadgets.

Despite the dip in sales compared to last quarter, interest in the iPhone appears to remain high, and the Apple's App Store is showing strong numbers because of that. The company recently reported that over 500 million applications have been downloaded from the online store since it opened, and that over 15,000 apps are available for the iPhone and iPod touch.

The company does not, however, breakout statistics for first time application downloads, duplicate downloads, or app update downloads. Apple also doesn't reveal how many downloads are for free versus purchased applications.

Apple's iPhone 3G is currently available in about 70 countries around the world, and the company is working to bring the device to additional markets throughout 2009.