The iPhone 5 is the most anticipated gadget of the season and perhaps the year, and so it really isn’t any wonder why one Piper Jaffray’s analysts thinks Apple could sell as many a 10M units the first month it launches.
Although Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has yet to announce it, most people are predicting that the company will introduce their phone on September 12 and then release it on September 21.
Gene Munster (analyst from Piper Jaffray) thinks Apple will sell an estimated 26 million to 28 million handsets during the September quarter. His prediction is higher than most, which currently speculate that Apple will only sell 22 million to 23 million units in September.
Munster summed it up nicely when he stated, “While our model, along with most of the Street, assumes an October launch, we believe that a September launch could result in the final 10 days of the month generating 6-10 million iPhone 5 unit sales, which would likely shift out of December. We believe if iPhone 5 launches in September, Apple could sell 26-28 million units in the quarter (this takes into account iPhone sales slowing dramatically from September 12-20, which is announcement to availability). This would imply 8% upside to the Street’s current $35 billion in revenue and 12% upside to EPS of $8.46.”
The last few quarters have been unkind to Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), as they often fell below expectations, although they still made a decent amount of revenue. Despite the the current rumors that don’t paint the iPhone 5 in the most exciting light, Munster still thinks Apple’s sixth generation smartphone will be the “the largest consumer electronics product upgrade in history.”
Is it a good thing that Munster has high expectations for the iPhone 5? Perhaps he knows something that we don’t. As I’ve mentioned before, I doubt that the rumors we’ve been hearing is all that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has to offer, especially considering that they like to keep the details of future products under lock and key.
