There’s no doubt that the iPhone 4 & 4S will be two of the most craved items for Christmas this year. According to several reports, Apple is expected to sell 30 million iPhones by the end of December. With these iPhone sales records, we can also expect to see some carrier sales records.
According to AllThingsD:
In the first group is Ticonderoga’s Brian White, who expects Apple to sell 29.9 million iPhones in the December quarter, a quarter-over-quarter increase of 84 percent. With him, BTIG Research’s Walter Piecyk, who says AT&T’s good news suggests Apple will sell 30 million iPhones in the quarter, just as he predicted in August.
In the second group: Stern Agee’s Shaw Wu and UBS’s Maynard Um. Wu raised his forecast for iPhone sales this quarter to 28 million, up from 26 million. Um went him two million better, raising his estimate to 30 million from 28 million, though he concedes even that might end up being a little light, thanks to high demand in the Asia Pacific region.
“We believe that there is a general strength across the board for iPhone demand,” Um said in a note to clients. “We continue to believe that our estimates are conservative as [they] are still below where expected build plans are.”
These outrageous numbers would set new records for Apple, yet the analysts’ call their estimations “conservative.” If you remember, Apple CEO Tim Cook said during the company’s last earnings call “We’re very confident that we will set an all-time record in the December quarter for iPhone sales. We — in our wildest dreams, we couldn’t have gotten off to a start as great as we have on the 4S.” Looks like Mr. Cook will be right.