Apple sold 8.3 million iPhones in 3Q

Apple Inc., the world’s largest technology company, sold 8.34 million iPhones in the U.S. in its most recent quarter, according to a court filing in its trial against Samsung Electronics Co.

U.S. sales accounted for 32 percent of the 26 million it sold worldwide, according to an exhibit in a court filing yesterday in federal court in San Jose, California. Apple, which is suing Samsung for patent infringement, hadn’t previously given a geographic breakdown of the sales of its biggest product by country.

The fiscal third-quarter total for the U.S. compares with 10.7 million Apple sold in the preceding three months and the record 15 million sold in the last three months of 2011, the filing showed. Apple has sold 86 million iPhones in the U.S. since the product debuted in 2007.

Last month the Cupertino, California-based company reported total worldwide sales for the product that missed analysts’ predictions, causing its revenue and profit to fall short of estimates for only the second time since 2003.

The trial between Apple and Samsung is the first before a U.S. jury in a battle being waged on four continents for dominance in a smartphone market valued by Bloomberg Industries at $219.1 billion. Each company is trying to persuade jurors at the trial that the other infringed patents covering designs and technology.

Apple shares were little changed at $621.70 at the close in New York, and is up 54 percent this year.

The case is Apple Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., 11- cv-01846, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (San Jose).