An analyst believes Apple sold a total of 52 million iPhone units during the fourth quarter of 2012.
The well-connected Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities expects Apple to report positive fourth quarter earnings when it's announced on January 23. Kuo estimates Apple's "main products" such as the the iPhone and iPad experienced quarter-to-quarter shipments increases during the last three months of 2012, with the latter device said to have shipped 23 million units.
However, he warns that shipments of certain devices within the two markets may fall short of expectations. Kuo referred to supply chain checks when citing sales of 52 million iPhone units during 2012's Q4, which would represent a 93 percent increase quarter-on-quarter and a jump of 41 percent year-to-year.
The iPhone 5 is said to have sold 35 million units during the fourth quarter, but that's a 3.5 percent decrease when compared to Kuo's previous forecast of 36.5 million. Elsewhere, fourth quarter shipments of the iPhone 4S and iPhone 4 settled for 9.5 million and 7.3 million, respectively.
Over the course of 2012, Apple is expected to have shipped over 140 million smartphones, which has been predominately spearheaded by iPhone 4S shipments of 74 million units during the first half of the year.
Kuo's investors note comes after worrying reports relating to Apple's market performance. Amid reports of Apple decreasing iPhone 5 production due to waning demand, the company has experienced its lowest stock price in 11 months. Preceding that saw the once most valuable company in the world suffering its largest share price decrease in four years.
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Zak Islam is a freelance writer focusing on security, networking, and general computing. His work also appears at Digital Trends and Tom's Guide.
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A Bad Day Seems that some analysts overestimated how much Apple can persuade its customers to pay more.Reply
Still have to give credit to Apple for its marketing... -
pacomac Quite impressive figures considering the doom and gloom forecasts and all the negativity towards Apple on here!Reply -
JOSHSKORN Looks like up to 54M will get lost using Apple Maps. Oh well, iPhone users are already lost, anyway.Reply -
analgin4o And how many of these 52M shipped units are actually sold? How many of all are staying on the shelves of the shops and warehouses, how many of them are replacement for any reason under warranty conditions. I didn't knew that replacements due warranty or any other reason are marked as "sold" devices! Don't believe to those PR gimmicks people - the real numbers are maybe the half of those 52M, maybe even lower. My apologies - English is not my first language!Reply -
An analyst believes Apple sold a total of 52 million iPhone units during the fourth quarter of 2012....Reply
thus the rest of the article is worthless! Zak strikes again! -
wemakeourfuture analgin4oAnd how many of these 52M shipped units are actually sold? How many of all are staying on the shelves of the shops and warehouses, how many of them are replacement for any reason under warranty conditions. I didn't knew that replacements due warranty or any other reason are marked as "sold" devices! Don't believe to those PR gimmicks people - the real numbers are maybe the half of those 52M, maybe even lower. My apologies - English is not my first language!Reply
half? What are you insane? Its easily to correlate iPad, iPhone sales with their SEC filings. When Apple releases their numbers (most companies don't even give specific about products as Apple does, so give them credit). Apple has a very, very high sell rate and low inventory compared to overall sales. No other mobile phone maker comes close to their revenue, profits, sales of flagship smartphones per quarter. Not saying their good, just market data reality.