Piper on Sept. numbers

Apple is likely to beat earlier estimates on iPhone sales for the September quarter, say analysts with Piper Jaffray. The firm writes that while it was previously predicting sales of 4.1 million phones, it recently performed 25 hours of in-store checks at Apple retail locations, leading to a new prediction of 4.47 million. Piper notes, as evidence, that Apple is now selling an average 95 phones per day at its stores, compared to 24 in September of 2007, and 21 in August. Apple sold 1.12 million iPhones in the whole of the September quarter last year.

The 95-per-day figure is expected to decline somewhat over the rest of the quarter, as Piper notes that in the second week of its study, average sales dropped by about 10 percent.

Dissecting the quarter's predicted sales total, it is believed that Apple's US stores will account for 1.78 million phones, with another 900,000 (five per day) being sold through AT&T locations. In spite of the number of countries set to carry the iPhone 3G, US sales should also still account for the majority, leaving 1.79 million to be sold internationally.

by MacNN Staff