Analyst predicts lowest sale of iPhone 5 handsets at launch to be 6mn

Over the past few days there has been a lot of hype surrounding the iPhone 5 , which has not even landed in stores yet. Prior to the announcement, Gene Munster, an analyst at Piper Jaffray predicted that Apple will be able to sell 8 to 10 million units of the handset. With Apple recently announcing that they had touched over two million preorders, the analyst has spoken once again and this time, he states that in a worst case scenario, Apple could sell 6 million iPhone 5 handsets this weekend.

As per a report by CNET , the author Josh Lowensohn states, “The latest estimate comes from Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster, who in a note to investors today says that at best Apple will move 8 million to 10 million iPhones, and at worst, 6 million. “While we continue to believe an 8 million launch weekend figure is achievable, we believe that the 2 million preorders suggest that the worst case weekend sales figure is likely to be 6 million,” Munster wrote. To put that in perspective, Apple sold 270,000 of its original iPhones in the device’s first 30 hours on sale back in 2007. Last year it took a weekend to move 4 million.”

May still touch the 8 million mark

According to a recent statement issued by Apple, the company recorded 2 million preorders in the first 24 hours, this number is more than double the previous record of one million held by iPhone 4S. Demand for iPhone 5 exceeds the initial supply, and while the majority of pre-orders will be delivered to customers on September 21 while many are scheduled to be delivered in October. Apple goes on to claim that iPhone 5 is the thinnest and lightest iPhone ever. The brand claims that this handset has been completely redesigned to feature a new 4-inch Retina display, an Apple-designed A6 chip for blazing fast performance, and ultrafast wireless technology -all while delivering even better battery life.

“iPhone 5 pre-orders have shattered the previous record held by iPhone 4S and the customer response to iPhone 5 has been phenomenal,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing. “iPhone 5 is the best iPhone yet, the most beautiful product we’ve ever made, and we hope customers love it as much as we do.”

Here is a quick look at the highlighted features of the iPhone 5:

• 4-inch, 326ppi Retina display at 1136 x 640 pixels,
• GPRS, EDGE, EV-DO, HSPA, HSPA+, DC-HSDPA, LTE and Wi-Fi
• GPS
• Bluetooth
• 8 megapixel camera with 1080p HD recording, 720p front-facing camera
• 16GB, 32GB and 64GB versions

Muster says, “Given the 2 million preorders for iPhone 5, it would require roughly 4 million sales at retail, or 33 percent year-over-year growth.  We believe the 33 percent year-over-year growth hurdle should be well within reason for Apple on the iPhone 5 launch, thus 6 million launch weekend units should be worst case.”

All this needs to be seen this weekend if the analyst’s estimates hold accurate.