Analysis: 100 million iPhone 5s could be sold
It's no secret that Apple's iPhone is a runaway hit. But if past history can determine future success, you ain't seen nothin' yet.
The word comes down from Asymco analyst Horace Didieu. In a whimsically-named report titled "Predicting iPhone Sales for Dummies," Didieu looked at sales data from all iPhone models to date and noted that they followed a specific trend as old model production transitioned into building the new model.
Based on the trends, Didieu made some rough forecasts -- the iPhone 4 will sell anywhere from 60 to 65 million units before the next iPhone debuts, and it has at least one more quarter of production life left (although some websites are pushing the iPhone 5 launch back to 2012). Over at 9to5Mac, blogger Christian Zibreg did his own take on the data and realized that an iPhone 5 could sell about 100 million units before the 6th generation device appears.
Since worldwide demand for smartphones of all flavors is expected to be in the range of 500 million over the next two years, it's not unlikely that Apple will sell a good number of those devices. With the strong retail presence that Apple has built up since 2007, as well as the thriving developer community in the App Store, the next iPhone could be even more of a success than all of its predecessors put together.
