Swiss Investment bank UBS says that 42.5 million copies of the Apple iPhone will be sold during the calendar fourth quarter, led by sales of the new Apple iPhone 4S. Analyst Maynard Um says that the firm's current Q4 estimate of 28 million units sold is conservative and that Apple could more than double the 17.1 million copies sold last quarter due to international sales of the phone.
Um does point out that international acceptance of the latest iteration of Apple's iconic touchscreen smartphone could be slower than in the U.S. because of Siri. The voice guided assistant so far works in only English, French and German. But if Apple can maintain last quarter's breakdown of U.S. sales to international sales at 27.5% and 72.5% respectively, the Cupertino based firm would be on track to sell 42.5 million copies of the handset in the current three month period. The analyst estimates that this would add an additional $3.09 in per share earnings to the estimated $9.47 per share that UBS expects from Apple in Q4 and could drive Apple's stock higher.
As we reported, Apple's third quarter earnings featured lower than expected sales of the Apple iPhone as many potential buyers were following the rumors and speculation that a new model would be launched in October, which of course it was. This led to lower sales of the phone at Verizon and AT&T which, of course, is nothing more than a bad memory as sales of the new Apple iPhone 4S have been booming. Add in some new iPhone vendors like Sprint and C-Spire, and sales of the latest Apple iPhone should remain strong.
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