Blockbuster start for iPhone 6 suggests Apple on track to sell 60M phones in December quarter

Posted:
in AAPL Investors edited September 2014
With 4 million iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus units presold in their first 24 hours of availability, investors on Wall Street are increasingly optimistic about the success of Apple's next-generation handsets, with predictions for the upcoming holiday edging higher to 60 million sales in a single quarter.




Apple announced on Monday that preorders for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus reached 4 million in their first day, setting a new record for the company. It also revealed that its initial supply of launch-day units is now sold-out for preorder, though walk-up customers will be able to buy from Apple Stores and retail partners when the handsets officially launch this Friday.

Apple's announcement was received favorably by Wall Street, with analysts chiming in to say they expect opening weekend sales of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus to set a new record. Last year, Apple sold 9 million iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c units in the first three days, and analysts said Monday they believe Apple could top 10 million this time, if there is adequate supply to reach that number.

The iPhone 6 will launch with a few days left in Apple's September quarter, arriving Friday in the U.S., Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Puerto Rico, Singapore and the U.K. Another 20 countries will get the iPhone 6 the following Friday, placing the device in a total of 30 markets before the end of the September quarter.

Analyst Rob Cihra of Evercore Partners projects that Apple will ship a total of 37 million iPhones in the September quarter, which would be a 10 percent year over year increase and a new record for that three-month period. Keith Bachman of BMO Capital Markets is slightly more conservative, at 35 million units, but admitted he sees the potential for upside in his estimates.

Investors' eyes, however, are focused on Apple's December quarter, which will be the first full quarter of iPhone 6 sales. Given Monday's preorder announcement, analysts began revising their estimates for the holiday quarter upward.




Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray said consensus on Wall Street currently calls for Apple to ship about 59 million iPhones in the December quarter, but the early preorder figures would suggest upside to those expectations.

Cihra believes Apple will see 22 percent year over year growth in the December quarter, reaching 62 million iPhone shipments for the period. He, like many others on Wall Street, also expects to see an increase in the average selling price of the iPhone, driven by the $100 premium commanded by the new jumbo-sized iPhone 6 Plus and more value at the $299 subsidized price with 64 gigabytes of storage.

Bachman also believes that the iPhone 6 Plus will cannibalize sales of Apple's 7.9-inch iPad mini, which he believes would be a positive for the company's consolidated margins. Out of contract, the iPhone 6 Plus starts at $749, compared to $399 for the iPad mini with Retina display.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 43
    herbapouherbapou Posts: 2,228member

    I think this iphone will see the mother load of upgrades.  imo they will sell has many has they can make.

     

    Also, since the 5c is now price correctly and the 5s is the only 4" phone, I think they will sell a lot of those models too.

  • Reply 2 of 43
    chadbagchadbag Posts: 1,999member
    I wonder how many "high end" Android phones (the real smartphones in the Android camp) will be sold in the December quarter across all brands...
  • Reply 3 of 43
    If apple plans to sell 60000000 iPhone devices in just 3 months and people are eager to buy them, I hope none of those customers then goes on to cry foul over Chinese labor abuse. Imagine how much pressure the Asian manufacturing work force is going to come under to provide desperate people with a device that suddenly they couldn't live with out. This will be interesting....
  • Reply 4 of 43
    I would like to see Apple really try to sell 100million phones in a quarter.
  • Reply 5 of 43

    Can someone please tell, for comparison, how many devices Samsung had sold on its first day (S3 or S4 or S5)?

    Just want to see how is the pulse for Apple products. 

  • Reply 6 of 43
    chandra69 wrote: »
    Can someone please tell, for comparison, how many devices Samsung had sold on its first day (S3 or S4 or S5)?
    Just want to see how is the pulse for Apple products. 
    there were a billion android devices sold in 2013.
  • Reply 7 of 43
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by herbapou View Post

     

    I think this iphone will see the mother load of upgrades.  imo they will sell has many has they can make.

     

    Also, since the 5c is now price correctly and the 5s is the only 4" phone, I think they will sell a lot of those models too.


    Herbapou speaks the truth.

     

    This is a major UPGRADE for probably 40 million of those 60 million sales.  20 Million 'switchers' will be for the following reasons.

    1) size

    2) size

    3) get out of the android ecosystem.

     

     

    but those 40 million.... those smatterings of 3gs users, 4, 4s, and 5 users will look at this as the jumping point into a real apple ecosystem.

     

    The 6 is significantly better phone than the 5... not so much over the 5s.  The 6p is significantly MORE phone, and better too.  I'm upgrading purely for batteries and ApplePay (4s) to a 6.   Even though I have 'clubbed thumbs,' I need the size (I live on a iPhone and a desktop... I don't travel with a ipad/laptop), but more importantly, I need the faster LTE (my wife's  iPhone 5 LTE is fast, but I saw what real LTE speeds was at my ATT store.... I wants that).

     

    and as noted, the 5c is now the 'my daughter/son/dog needs a phone....' pricing.

     

    The 5s... a good phone, but I see it on an island.  Not 'Apple Pay' worthy, and not bigger, and batter

     

    now... of those 40 million phones, probably 25% will go into the grey market, and/or become the kid/nephew phone.  by the end of the year, you should see 30 million new users.  20 million ex Android users (those who spend at the high end) and 10 million low end (those that would have gotten a cheap android, but now are 70% likely to never leave the apple ecosystem).   Compared to the 'billion' android users... chump change, but it's all about the long game (ApplePay and Healthkit are things people will 'stick' to  for a long time if apple executes.)  You get 50% of the top 50% of wage earners in the world, forever... that's a big play).

  • Reply 8 of 43
    chiachia Posts: 713member
    Originally Posted by jonaspeter1 View Post
    I hope none of those customers then goes on to cry foul over Chinese labor abuse. Imagine how much pressure the Asian manufacturing work force is going to come under...

     

    as if you actually cared...

     

    from "Foxconn may replace 'iPhone 6' assembly line workers with 'Foxbot' robots.

  • Reply 9 of 43

    I think you'll find 60 million come up short of the actual total.

  • Reply 10 of 43

    Well either way, it's going to be a labor intensive process (directly or indirectly). I have never owned an iphone. But i bet the work force assembling galaxy phones is working equally as hard.

  • Reply 11 of 43
    wovelwovel Posts: 956member
    adonissmu wrote: »
    there were a billion android devices sold in 2013.

    You missed the thing about "high-end" whereby the poster meant actual smart phones. Not the 750 million feature phones that registered as Android devices in the Play store. If you can break down the billion by Make and Model, we can talk.
  • Reply 12 of 43
    jungmarkjungmark Posts: 6,926member
    adonissmu wrote: »
    there were a billion android devices sold in 2013.

    What's your point. He asked for Galaxy numbers.

    I'm surprised analysts didn't guess elevenity billion. I think 60 is reachable if China is included for at least a month or two in the Dec qtr.
  • Reply 13 of 43
    For the past several years, people have looked with envy at the amazing feature set, reliability, and design of Apple products. But they wanted a bigger screen, so they went with Android-based phones.

    Now they've realized their mistake, and now that you can get a large screened iOS device, well, what's left of Samsung's bottom line is going to take a royal pounding before this is all over. Everyone else is irrelevant.

    There should have been two, at most three mobile OS's; iOS, Windows Phone, and WebOS. Android should never have existed.
  • Reply 14 of 43
    wovel wrote: »
    You missed the thing about "high-end" whereby the poster meant actual smart phones. Not the 750 million feature phones that registered as Android devices in the Play store. If you can break down the billion by Make and Model, we can talk.

    He can't help it. Probably a kneejerk troll.
  • Reply 15 of 43
    Samsung knows apple does shit right and they are very worried. Samsung can't do what apple does. Apple has it sewed up.
  • Reply 16 of 43
    pdq2pdq2 Posts: 270member

    Here's a single meaningless datapoint- I've been using (suffering with) the company's Blackberry for 3 years now. I was recently told I can get a free new phone from them! ...an Android or Windows mobile. Sheesh.

     

    I've had enough. I want my iPhone, even if it comes out of my own wallet. The funny thing is, I _might_ get a 5s - I think I'd rather have a skinnier phone to put in my pocket. I kinda like the rounded edges of the 6, and I could see using ApplePay, but maybe not enough to pocket the larger phone.

     

    Now, If they come out with a larger iPad, I'm sold. I still find my iPad2 a little cramped for browsing. But that's not going in my pocket, all day, every day.

  • Reply 17 of 43

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post



    With 4 million iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus units presold in their first 24 hours of availability, investors on Wall Street are increasingly optimistic about the success of Apple's next-generation handsets, with predictions for the upcoming holiday edging higher to 60 million sales in a single quarter.

     

     

    Apple will sell more than sixty million iPhones in Q4 2014.

  • Reply 18 of 43
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by jonaspeter1 View Post



    If apple plans to sell 60000000 iPhone devices in just 3 months and people are eager to buy them, I hope none of those customers then goes on to cry foul over Chinese labor abuse. Imagine how much pressure the Asian manufacturing work force is going to come under to provide desperate people with a device that suddenly they couldn't live with out. This will be interesting....

    I would have to agree.

     

    I use to tell the tree huggers when they complained about the rest of us using all the natural resources and we were destroying the earth. I would look at them and ask them do they live in a house, do they use electricity, do they use natural gas to heat their house, do they own a car, motorcycle or even a bike, if so I told them they are also part of the problem and unless they are naked in the wood living off what they grew they were just as much a part of the issue as anyone else. 

     

    I really want to see the tree huggers on the show Naked and Afraid and see how well they do without their things.

  • Reply 19 of 43
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by AdonisSMU View Post





    there were a billion android devices sold in 2013.

    Where are you getting your numbers from? There were a billion smartphones shipped in 2013 between all device makers. Perhaps that's what you meant? Also, shipments don't equate to sales.

     

    Quote from InformationWeek

    "Samsung is far and away the world's leading supplier of smartphones. The company shipped 82 million during the fourth quarter of 2013 and 313.9 million over the entire year."

    source: http://www.informationweek.com/mobile/mobile-business/1-billion-smartphones-shipped-in-2013/d/d-id/1113603

  • Reply 20 of 43
    malaxmalax Posts: 1,598member

    If I were buying a new iPhone this year, there is no way I would consider the 5c or 5s.  The former is crippled with 8 gig and the latter won't be able to do Apple Pay, so it's essentially obsolete.  On the other hand I might very well favor an "iPhone 6 minus" (all the good stuff with the 5s size).  I hope Apple offers that as an option next time around.  There is something to be said for portability/pocketability.

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