Jonathan Sidener of SignOnSandiego has looked to compare the lacklusture sales numbers of the iPhone to the PS3. Both products were subject to high levels of hype but without the respective sales numbers to back it up. Sidener states that sales of the iPhone don't come close to the PS3 and that has been considered a retail flop so far, and the iPhone is far from matching the Wii's frenzy. This goes to show how poorly the iPhone has performed.

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If my fuzzy math has correctly accounted for all the iPhone retail sales – from Apple and AT&T stores – we're left with 100,000 iPhones sitting on AT&T shelves two days after the phone's launch.

An iPhone apologist might point out that we only have two days' worth of data. The unactivated phones probably ended up in consumers' hands within the next few days. Apple plans to be in the phone business for the long haul, the defender might say. The company says it's on track to sell 1 million iPhones by the end of September.

The devil's advocate might respond that if the launch was softer than expected, that doesn't bode well for the iPhone's long-term potential. Based on eBay numbers, the iPhone doesn't fare well in comparison to the PlayStation 3 – and the PlayStation 3 has been something of a retail flop so far.

The iPhone has the same kind of techno-wow as the Nintendo Wii, the devil's advocate might point out. But it can't match the Wii's frenzy. Eight months after the launch of the gaming system, Nintendo doesn't need to count as sales products still sitting on store shelves – there aren't any.