In a note to clients — as reported by “CNET” (news.cnet.com) — Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster iPhone sales in the third quarter probably won’t break the bank, but they may be higher than anticipated, says Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster.
Based on the number of iPhones activated by Verizon last quarter, the analyst believes Apple’s non-iPhone 5 sales were stronger than expected.
This week Verizon announced it had activated 3.1 million iPhones in the third quarter, up 15% from the prior quarter and higher than Piper Jaffray’s estimate of 2.5 million. Of those, only 651,000 were for the iPhone 5.
Munster calls those numbers “a positive read for Apple.” Though he expects Apple’s non-iPhone 5 sales to decline 35% from a year-ago, he’s predicting a drop of just 4% for total iPhone sales in the third quarter. As a result, the analyst is sticking with his forecast of 25 million iPhones sold during Apple’s last fiscal quarter.