Apple is set to announce its quarterly earnings for fiscal Q1 2014 on January 27, 2014, so that means it’s the silly season for analysts to come out with their predictions about how many iPhones Apple sold last quarter. They seem to mostly do this so they can set a fictitious bar, so if Apple doesn’t clear that bar, they can come out with their boilerplate “Apple is Doomed!” headlines.
As reported by Philip Elmer-Dewitt of Fortune, the iPhone sales consensus among 27 professionals and 17 amateurs is a record 55.3 million units, up 16% from fiscal Q1 2013 when Apple set its current record of 47.8 million units. The average sales estimate among amateurs was 57.1 million units, while professionals were slightly lower with 54.1 million.
The space between high and low estimates form the analysts is relatively small, with only 9.7 million units separating the high estimate of 59.73 million, (Faizal Kara of the The Braeburn Group), and the lowest estimate, a mere 50 million from Ilari Scheinin, also of The Braeburn Group. (Don’t these guys talk to each other? – Ed.) Last years high/low gap for estimates was 20 million.
iPad sales results are also expected to come in strong, as Apple debuted two new iPad models early in Q1, and also dropped the price of the original iPad mini, which remains in production.
