Q4: High Mac, iPhone sales

Gene Munster, senior research analyst at Piper Jaffray, is predicting that Apple will likely hit its goal of selling 730,000 iPhones in the September quarter. His channel checks, in fact, reveal that the company is likely to sell 804,000 phones in the quarter. Munster also estimates that Apple will sell 2,000,000 Macs in the quarter, ahead of his earlier estimate of 1,900,000. According to a report in Forbes, Munster's checks also indicate that the average Apple retail store sells 55 Macs per day, meaning that 866,000 units in the quarter will have been sold from retail outlets alone. Munster maintains an "Outperform" rating on Apple with a price target of $211.

In a separate analyst note, Bear Stearns claims that Research In Motion could lose sales to Apple, saying "While Research In Motion does not directly compete with iPhone currently, iPhone could emerge as a meaningful competitor as it expands its product line to include a low-end phone and adds enterprise email support."

In a recent study published by iSuppli, researchers found that 1.8 percent of all cellphones sold in the US during July were iPhones, regardless of class. This figure gave it an edge over all other previous smartphone champions, including Research in Motion and its BlackBerry line, Palm's Treo series, and less prevalent phones from Motorola, Nokia, and Samsung, according to the analyst group. The number also tied sales of the best-selling feature phone on the market, the LG Chocolate, though iSuppli would not say whether this applied to the original model on sale with Verizon or its recent upgrade.

by MacNN Staff