Seems we aren't the only one's who are bullish on Apple's ability to move iPhones this year. Lehman Brothers analyst Ben Reitzes is thinking that, after the deal with Best Buy, his estimate of 12 million iPhones by the end of the year is "very conservative." Reitzes is also thinking that maybe his estimate of 24 million iPhones sold in 2009 is equally conservative.
Apple's expanding Best Buy presence will create an additional iPhone halo effect, Reitzes believes, with iPhone customers returning to look at laptops or desktops in the Apple store-within-a-store. The Lehman analyst sees the Best Buy deal as a "tipping point," pushing the relatively pricey mobile device into mass-market territory. I couldn't agree more.
UBS analyst Maynard Um isn't so easily impressed; Best Buy would have to move about 200,000 phones to even add a penny to Apple's earnings per share. And it's true that it might not have a huge effect on the bottom line, but it's likely to have a huge effect on the notoriously hard to quantify "mindshare" that the iPhone will command. That mysterious force has been fueling Apple's soaring gains lately, resulting in records sales and profits. "Future product transition" notwithstanding, I expect more of the same in the foreseeable future.
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