Week After Launch, Apple iPhone 5 Seen Making History in Sales

Apple is estimated to be shipping the new iPhone 5 on September 21, nine days after its expected release on September 12 with forecasts that first week sales record of the new high-end smartphone will likely breach the 10-million mark. 

 

Apple last week distributed invites for its big announcement of the release of the Cupertino-based company’s sixth-generation new high-end device on September 12.  While no announcement has been made of date for shipping, which Apple will announce on the event itself, the estimation was derived from media reports that also correctly predicted the iPhone launch. 

 

Drawing awe and excitement from tech observers and enthusiasts, this level of anticipation is expected to reach fever-pitch high when Tim Cook steps up on stage to announce the details of the new phone model.

 

Investment firm Piper Jaffray’s analyst Gene Munster already projected that sales for the iPhone 5 will soar to breach the 10 million mark of total units sold before the end of the quarter if the new handset will ship on September 21 with no supply issues. 

 

Munster is looking at 6 to 10 million iPhone 5s being sold by end of September, which technically is the end of a quarter. This strong figure estimate was more than double than the four million units sold a week after the launch of iPhone 4S, and even bigger than the two million units of iPhone 4 sold, and the one million iPhone 3GS sales.

 

Meanwhile, analysts at investment firm Jefferies took note of the 170 million smartphone subscribers globally whose contracts with their carrier will expire by second half of the year and additional 450 million to follow in 2013. These figures gives ample room for the iPhone 5’s roaring success.

 

Earlier reports placed the iPhone 5 to be a much-larger edition compared to its predecessor, the iPhone 4s, will have LTE, and smaller dock plug.