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Analyst: iPhone 5 Could Sell 6-10 Million Units in One Week

This article is more than 10 years old.

Tech giant Apple has admitted that there’s bound to be a “pause” in its iPhone sales as it gets ready to announce the latest iteration of the blockbuster smartphone.

Image via CrunchBase

Samsung’s Galaxy S3 recently supplanted the iPhone 4s as the top selling phone in the U.S. – noticeable really, that the iPhone was able to hold that top spot for so long, even as people waited for new announcements.

If one analyst is to be believed, this pause could end in an explosive fashion. Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster, cited by All Things D, says that the iPhone 5 could sell between six and ten million units in the first week, setting the stage for 26 to 28 million units for the September quarter.

Munster has gotten excited about Apple before – in the past, he’s said that its stock price could soar as high as $1,000 per share. Even if the numbers that he’s throwing around seem gigantic, All Things D notes how the first week sales have grown for each successive iPhone model, up to more than 4 million for the iPhone 4s.

The key question here is: how many people have been waiting for Apple to announce a new product before upgrading their phones? Those people are going to be the most reliable immediate adopters of new technology. Judging by the furious pace at which the rumor mill has been churning for months now, the pressure for this phone is building. If Apple can give people something that makes the jump seem worth it, it could release that pressure directly into its bank account.

One thing is clear – as I said yesterday, Apple can’t afford to give us a half-measure incremental upgrade with the iPhone 5. The hype masters need to work their magic to make sure that people feel like they’ve been given enough reason to make the jump to the next generation. The market is more than primed, but that doesn’t mean Apple can let this one slack.