Apple to make 45m iPhone 3Gs in one year
updated 07:55 am EDT, Fri August 22, 2008
Apple 45m iPhone 3G Target
Apple is aggressive enough in its iPhone business that it's targeting production of between 40 million to 45 million iPhone 3G units over the course of the next year, say sources for BusinessWeek that are allegedly conscious of Apple's plans. The August 2009 target is a 50 percent boost over a 30 million-unit, one year goal Apple had set in July and is characterized as at least 52 percent higher than even the most optimistic analyst estimates, which in Piper Jaffray researcher Gene Munster's view would have Apple shipping 26 million devices.
The internal goal was allegedly boosted shortly after launch, when it became apparent that sales were much stronger than expected, according to the purported insiders. Apple publicly claims to have sold one million iPhone 3G examples on the handset's launch weekend, but is unofficially believed by the same sources to be producing about 150,000 iPhones per day, or potentially more than the 800,000 iPhones per week reported earlier. A consistent rate of production would result in about 39 million iPhones shipped in the course of a 12-month period.
Meeting its higher goals will in part require improved turnaround times at stores that are being realized by Apple, the magazine adds. Needham Research analyst Charlie Wolf claims to be aware of process improvements that will cut the time it takes to fully register and activate customers down from 30 minutes at the extreme end to just 15, potentially reducing the queues that have persisted since the iPhone 3G first went on sale.
Other analysts have also said Apple's shipping numbers would increase should the company introduce a lower-cost iPhone, which Munster in particular believes would be introduced in early 2009.
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40 Million iPhones, conservatively assume $100 net profit per handset, 4 Billion dollars in profit. Well, Apple better call Mike Dell and tell him they're gonna throw in the towel. And also call the folks over at Palm to let them know they were right, Apple just doesn't have the experience to make a smart home much less compete in the market.
To be fair though, it's in past doom-sayers interest to cast dispersions on competitors, though history has repeatedly demonstrated betting against Apple is probably not the smartest thing. With Dell's comment it could have gone either way with Apple. With Palm though, seriously how long were they sleeping for, they said more or less the same thing people said about the iPod when it was first introduced.