Early iPhone 5s Sales Would Have Been Higher Were It Not For Supply Constraints
October 18, 2013
If you didn’t buy an iPhone 5s during launch weekend, you can probably appreciate this story. Morgan Stanley’s Katy Huberty says that Apple could have sold 37 million iPhones during the fourth quarter. Supply constraints for the iPhone 5s, however, probably pushed that number down to 34.5 million units, according to AppleInsider.
Huberty notes that Apple is likely to report revenues of $37 billion, when they announce quarterly financials later this month. The analyst says this number will result in earnings per share of $8 for the quarter.
Not surprisingly, Huberty expects big things from Apple during the holiday quarter. For now, she sees iPhone shipments surpassing 55 million units, which would be a record. Huberty believes that 45 percent of all iPhones sold during the quarter will be for that handset. This will result in record revenue of $55.6 billion, according to Huberty.
The Wall Street consensus is that Cupertino will sell 53 million iPhones between October and December.
Huberty remains decidedly bullish on Apple. She sees Apple’s share price growing to $686 within the next year. To date, they stand at around $500.
Earlier this week, Verizon Wireless announced that it activated 3.9 million iPhones during the third quarter, or an increase of 26 percent from 2012. This represented 51 percent of smartphones activated from July through September by the largest carrier in the United States.
Apple will announce fourth-quarter earnings on Monday, Oct. 28 beginning at 2 p.m. PDT. Quarterly earnings for AT&T will be announced on Wednesday, Oct. 23.
