Apple is expected to announce that they’ve already hit 5 million iPhones sold at MacWorld in a few weeks. This means that they’re well on their way to demolishing the stated goal of 10 million iPhones sold by the end of 2008 – they could even double it.

Apple has sold 5 million units of a 1st generation device that many are still hesistant to buy. What happens when the development kit hits in February and all the native apps you can imagine start coming? What happens in the 2nd half of 2008 when the 3G iPhone hits? The sky seems the limit right now.

This also means that their web-browsing share for the iPhone should be even more impressive by this time next year – it’s certainly not out of the realm of possibility that they could pass all Linux-based machines in web browsing usage! It’s taken 6 months for Apple to do what Microsoft and others couldn’t do for years – make a viable Internet experience on a mobile device.

But the iPhone is potentially even more than that. It’s the first step towards real mobile computing. If that sounds silly now, just wait until 20 million people have iPhones in the not-too-distant future and they become the primary source for everything from IM to music management to movie rentals. I’ve been drinking the Multi-touch Kool-aid since pretty early on, but after using a simple implementation of it in the iPhone over the past 6 months, I’m completely sold that it’s the way of the future – and will eventually unchain us from traditional desktops and laptops.

Apple is now said to be working on many more portable computing devices in conjunction with Intel for 2008. While the laptop got us up from our desks, 2008 could finally start the transition to real computing on the go.