In a note to clients — as reported by “AppleInsider” (http://www.appleinsider.com) — Kaufman Brothers analyst Shaw Wu says Verizon is “still excited” about launching Apple’s iPhone early next year “to combat slowing Android momentum in the US.”
He says the confirmation of Verizon’s interest in launching the iPhone, “despite it already carrying a full roster of competing operating systems including Android, BlackBerry, Symbian, Windows, and webOS,” provides additional support for data reported earlier showing a sharp decline in Verizon’s growth from Android following the launch of iPhone 4.
Last week, Apple Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster told clients that he thinks Apple will sell nine million Verizon iPhones in 2011. What’s more, he says that estimate may be conservation. Munster thinks that Apple could sell closer to 20 million iPhones at Verizon next year.
The analyst thinks Verizon will activate 25 million smartphones next year. His estimate of nine million would only represent 36% of all activations for the year. Note that there’s been no official word on if or when Verizon will carry the iPhone.