The iPhone 5 is set to release at the end of next month, but an analyst believes those could be a very profitable 10 days.
Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster has projected that Apple will sell between 26 and 28 million units of the iPhone 5 during this quarter, which is well ahead of current estimates. Of that number, he predicts that 6-10 million will be sold in September alone.
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.
There has been almost no question that the iPhone 5 would be a huge hit and is estimated to break previous sales records. Apple is even expected to become the first trillion dollar corporation due to the iPhone 5.