“Following a look into the holiday quarter for large cap tech companies, Canaccord Genuity technology analyst Michael Walkley noted that strong holiday sales lead to a record smartphone quarter for Apple (AAPL),” Forbes reports.
“Mr. Walkley estimated that 2012 holiday quarter sales of Apple iPhones were 38.1 million, a 31% jump from 2012 Q3 sales of 26.2 million,” Forbes reports. “Mr. Walkley estimates that during the first three quarters of 2011, Apple earned approximately 54% of all smartphone industry operating profits.”
Read more in the full article here.
Did anyone expect lesser news?
Yes. I expected estimates from Q3 and Q4 2011. Mr. Walkley must have access to a time machine.
A company’s fiscal year is not the same as the calendar year. Apple’s fiscal 2011 ended months ago.
Yes, however Q3 and Q4 for 2012 did not.
And water is wet
There may be enough consumer demand for Apple to sell 38.1 million iPhones, but I doubt that it has the capacity to produce that many phones.
Just what we need, another Doubting Thomas.
+ ∞ !
Since iPhone 4S in some important markets only started to sell near to the very end of the year, and on some major markets was not available at all (2012Q1 is start of the sales), all these crazy sales figures are just attempt to manipulate expectations to inflate stock price before announcement of quarterly results before share price drop because of quarter “did not meet analysts’ expectations”.
Remember 2011Q3: analysts blatantly ignored key fact that Apple was four months late with introducing new generation of iPhones and predicted sales of 22 million of phones in that quarter. However, reality took over and actual results were 17 million.
So realistic expectations for 2011Q4 are 25 million iPhones, up to, say, 30 million — if it was the market and manufacturing was ready at the time for such volume.
More sane iPhone sales predictions:
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/12/01/06/apple_projected_to_reach_116m_iphone_55m_ipad_sales_in_2012.html
Grrrrreeaaaaaaat.
The analysts and media will drum expectations for FYQ1 higher and higher so that when APPL beats it’s own guidance, they still won’t beat the street. Thus, the stock will fall post financials.
Apple is meant to fail earnings by Wall Street’s design. What’s really amusing is that Wall Street probably can’t find a better company that has such consistent earnings and yet they’re always trying to beat the stock down. I really don’t quite understand this situation of trying to devalue a very successful company. Undoubtedly, Apple shares will fall post earnings and never even get close to what the bulls are forecasting.
It happens all the time and yet they continue expecting something different to happen (Apple shares going up 8% overnight or something) because they’ve prayed harder each time. What a laugh. The heavens don’t give a damn about Apple shareholders any more than Apple does as it holds onto its personal stash of reserve cash.