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.