iPhone Sales: 30.3 Million This Quarter, 111.4 Million in Fiscal 2012
With demand for the iPhone 4S surging and component constraints related to the flooding in Thailand subsiding, Wall Street is reassessing its iPhone sales estimates for Apple’s fiscal first quarter of 2012, and the year beyond.
The latest analyst to do so, Susquehanna’s Jeffrey Fidacaro, sees another blowout quarter ahead for Apple.
According to Fidacaro, Apple is on track to sell 30.3 million iPhones this quarter, quite a bit more than his previous estimate of 27.1 million. And for fiscal 2012, he figures the company will sell 111.4 million units, up from his earlier prediction of 104.4 million.
“The revisions are based on positive sell-through data combined with recent supply-chain checks, which suggests that earlier component constraints have largely been resolved and build plans have increased for the fourth and first quarter,” Susquehanna said in a research note to clients. “Demand appears solid as iPhone 4S continues to ship in one to two weeks online and stores are generally sold out for in-store reservation and pickup.”
Fidacaro’s new estimate follows recent comments by AT&T CFO John Stephens, suggesting that the iPhone 4S has been driving record smartphone sales.