In a note to clients — as reported by “MacRumors” (www.macrumors.com) — Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster predicts that Apple will sell eight million iPhone 5s during the product’s launch weekend — which is the upcoming weekend.
“Given the 2 million pre-orders, we remain confident that Apple can deliver 8 million (range of 6-10 million) iPhones in the launch weekend,” he says. “The reason we are confident in the 8 million is two-fold. First, initial 24 hour pre-orders for the iPhone 5 were up 100% y/y from the iPhone 4S. Last year, pre-orders accounted for 25% of total weekend launch unit sales. Assuming the same initial pre-order/retail distribution, the pre-order total would suggest 8 million launch units.”
On Monday Apple announced that pre-orders of its iPhone 5 topped two million in just 24 hours. That’s more than double the previous record of one million held by iPhone 4S.