Apple may have sold more iPhones last quarter than ever before

In case you weren’t convinced that the iPhone had another banner year in 2013, Fortune has collected unit sales estimates from 44 professional and amateur analysts, all of whom believe that Apple just had the best quarter in the history of its smartphone. The average of all 44 estimates comes out to a record 55.3 million iPhone sales in fiscal Q1, a 16% jump over the same quarter last year. Fortune’s Philip Elmer-DeWitt also points out that the range from highest to lowest estimate is 9.7 million, whereas the range during Q1 2013 was nearly 20 million. In other words, there’s a much greater consensus this year. Apple will report its holiday-quarter financial results next Monday, January 27th after the market closes.