Apple Inc. may sell as many as 15 million iPhones in the quarter ending in September, and up to 40 million in the current fiscal year as it begins manufacturing a new version, according to Rodman & Renshaw Equity Research.
The company will produce nearly 12 million of the new iPhones in the September quarter, said Ashok Kumar, an analyst with Rodman & Renshaw. Combined with the existing iPhone 3GS, overall sales may rise to 15 million units in the period, double the 7.4 million in the fourth quarter that ended in September, he said. The increased volume could push iPhone sales in fiscal 2010 to 40 million, more than double the 18 million of fiscal 2009.
Cupertino's Apple has turned to Asustek Computer Inc. of Taipei to make the new phone, which previously has been built by Hon Hai Group, also based in Taipei, Kumar said. He said Apple is on track to release an iPhone that will work on the Verizon Wireless network in time for the holiday shopping season in the United States.
"Apple is close to achieving peak market share with its existing lineup of wireless carriers," Kumar said in an interview. "The only way to keep growing its iPhone business is to expand its relationships with other carriers and to become more carrier-agnostic."
Apple has sold the iPhone exclusively through AT&T Inc. in the United States since it introduced the device in 2007. Apple sold 11 million iPhones in the six months that ended in March. Kumar forecasts that iPhone sales in fiscal 2011 may rise to 60 million units.
Steve Jobs, Apple's chief executive officer, will address the company's Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco next Monday. Apple has previously used the event to introduce new iPhone hardware. Last year, while Jobs was on a 5 1/2-month medical leave after a liver transplant, Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller introduced the iPhone 3GS.
Potential stumbling blocks remain between Apple and Verizon Wireless, Kumar said. Certification of the device by the Federal Communications Commission is behind schedule, he said, and Apple and Verizon have yet to conclude a deal that would have Verizon supporting the iPhone on its network.
"That is essentially in Steve's lap," Kumar said. "At the end of the day, it's going to be his call." Kumar rates Apple shares as "market outperform" with a target price of $285 per share.
Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr, AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel and Verizon spokesman Tom Pica declined to comment.
An unreleased iPhone prototype, lost by an Apple engineer at a bar in March, was disassembled and photographed by the technology blog Gizmodo last month. If the prototype turns out to accurately represent the next iPhone, customers can expect a model with a front-facing camera, a flash for use with the main camera, a higher-resolution screen, a bigger, longer-lasting battery and a boxier design than the iPhone 3GS, according to Gizmodo's analysis.
