10 Best-Selling Products Ever - Enduring success, Some products sell well when introduced. Many more fail miserably. Very few sell so well that they fundamentally affect American culture. These 10 products did just that.
While each of these products is in a different industry, there are clear similarities. Each was innovative at the time of release, and several prompted unprecedented consumer behavior. Before "Star Wars," people never camped out in front of a movie theater to see a midnight debut. "Harry Potter" was the first major fantasy-book series geared toward "tweens."
Many products are successful because they are franchises. Though both the iPod and iPad were instantaneous successes for Apple (AAPL), they have continued to benefit from the release of new versions. Similarly, the Mario video-game franchise has turned out 31 titles.
To develop this list, the website 24/7 Wall St. reviewed product categories that generate widespread attention and command lasting loyalty. It then identified individual products that had the highest sales in those categories.
Toys, consumer electronics, books and movies can be passing interests; however, the most successful of these are among the best-selling products of all time. Click through the following slide show, published Aug. 6, for a closer look at the top 10 best-sellers.
Category: Toy
Units sold: 350 million
Parent company: Seven Towns
Ernő Rubik created the prototype of the Magic Cube in 1974, in Budapest, Hungary. An American toy manufacturer acquired the license to the product and renamed it the Rubik's Cube, in 1980.
The device went on to become an international sensation. At the height of the toy's popularity, in the mid-1980s, the company estimates that as many as one-fifth of the world's population had tried solving the Rubik's Cube.
With its eye-catching colors, affordability and level of difficulty, the Rubik's Cube remains popular.
Category: Smartphone
Units sold: 250 million
Parent company: Apple (AAPL)
Launched five years ago, the iPhone is the top-selling smartphone to date. Strategy Analytics, a research company, estimates that the iPhone has generated about $150 billion in revenue for Apple.
There are five generations of the iPhone -- the original, 3G, 3GS, 4 and 4S. With newer generations often more popular than previous ones, Apple's iPhone sales are likely to continue to grow at a healthy pace.
Category: Books
Units sold: 450 million
Parent company: Scholastic (SCHL) (Publisher in the United States)
The first book in the Harry Potter series was released in the United States in 1998 under the name "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" and was an instant success. Each new installment has been similarly received. The final installment, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," is one of the fastest-selling books of all time; more than 11 million copies were sold within 24 hours of its release.
To date, the series has generated an estimated $7.7 billion in sales, making author J.K. Rowling one of the highest-paid authors in the world. A movie series based on the books was also a smash hit.
Category: Album
Units sold: 110 million
Parent company: Epic Records
The 30th anniversary of the release of Michael Jackson's groundbreaking album "Thriller" is coming in November. One of the first albums to use music videos as a promotional tool, "Thriller" became the best-selling album of all time in just over a year on the market.
The album garnered eight Grammy Awards in 1984, including Album of the Year. Seven of the songs on the album were Billboard top 10 hits. To put the King of Pop's album sales in perspective, Justin Bieber's "My World" (parts 1 and 2) collectively sold just 3.2 million units.
Category: Video games
Units sold: 262 million
Parent company: Nintendo (NTDOY)
The Mario character debuted in 1981 in the first video game of the "Donkey Kong" series. Since then, the Italian plumber has appeared in dozens of titles, including at least 31 titles that each topped 1 million in unit sales.
The Super Mario subfranchise alone has sold more than 262 million units.
Category: Tablets
Units sold: 67 million
Parent company: Apple (AAPL)
The first iPad was released in April 2010 and quickly became the first commercially successful tablet computer. Apple recently introduced the third generation of its iPad.
According to researcher IDG Connect, 12% of those who use an iPad on the job no longer use their personal computers at work.
Category: Movies
Sales revenue: $4.5 billion
Parent company: 20th Century Fox
James Cameron's 2009 film "Avatar" is the highest-grossing U.S. movie ever, although, on an inflation-adjusted basis, the 1939 classic "Gone With the Wind" remains the highest-grossing film, according to Box Office Mojo.
In terms of a film franchise, however, nothing approaches the moneymaking record of "Star Wars". The original in George Lucas' series debuted in 1977 and grossed more than $1.4 billion. Five films followed, ending with "Episode III: Revenge of the Sith" in 2005.
Category: Automobiles
Units sold: 39 million
Parent company: Toyota Motor (TM)
The Corolla has been selling for more than four decades, with the model evolving over 11 generations. Toyota has sold one Corolla every 40 seconds since the sedan was introduced.
The Corolla was the first car Toyota assembled in the United States. The vehicle has been available in the U.S. since 1968.
Category: Pharmaceuticals
Sales revenue: $125 billion
Parent company: Pfizer (PFE)
Like other statins, Lipitor is designed to lower the level of LDL (low-density lipoprotein) -- the so-called bad cholesterol -- in the blood. It was developed by Warner-Lambert, which later merged with Pfizer. Lipitor was approved for sale by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 1997.
Lipitor was not the first drug in its class to hit the market, but its ability to reduce cholesterol, combined with a significant advertising budget, helped propel sales. Lipitor was introduced the same year that the FDA began to allow direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs.
By 2008, drug companies were spending $4.5 billion to promote U.S. sales of their medicines. In 2009, no drug was more heavily marketed than Lipitor, a drug that has contributed between 20% of 25% of Pfizer's revenue since its introduction.
In November, Pfizer lost patent exclusivity on Lipitor, paving the way for sales of less-expensive generic versions of the drug in the United States.
Category: Video game consoles
Units sold: 300 million
Parent company: Sony (SNE)
The first edition of the PlayStation was launched in 1994. The brand consists of three home consoles as well as various portable devices, an online service and a PlayStation store.
0 comments:
Post a Comment