Apple’s iPhone 7 may not have included any revolutionary new features or even a drastic redesign, but analysts are already anticipating that the device will help Apple set a new quarterly record for revenue once the company’s fiscal first quarter comes to a close in just a few days.
To date, Apple’s best quarter to date was its 2015 holiday quarter when it posted a quarterly profit of $18.4 billion on the back of an astounding $75.9 billion in revenue. Now comes word via Brean Capital analyst Ananda Baruah that Apple this quarter may finally pass the elusive $76 billion mark for revenue, a threshold its been steadily approaching for a few years now.
Naturally, strong iPhone sales will account for most of the heavy lifting this quarter, with Baruah projecting Apple to deliver anywhere between 77 and 78 million in unit sales. By way of contrast, Apple during the same quarter a year-ago sold 74.8 million iPhones. And further padding Apple’s bottom line is the fact that the more margin-friendly iPhone 7 Plus turned out to be much more popular than even Apple expected.
Interestingly, Baruah articulates that Apple’s 2017 iPhone lineup — which will reportedly consist of two iPhone 7s models and a premium curved OLED device — might not be the sales homerun that many others are projecting.
“Case in point, we believe it to be entirely possible that initially there is just one iPhone 8 model (the Plus + size), which we believe could mute overall iPhone shipments,” Baruah wrote. “Given the lack of model clarity, along with lack of super compelling new features and, frankly, higher ASPs in the U.S given the roll-back of carrier subsidies, competition in China, and higher ASPs in India, we believe it’s very possible that the CY’18 demand is more muted that what we’d all originally envisioned.”
Of course, amid reports that Apple is testing up to 10 different iPhone 8 prototypes, it’s probably a tad too early before we can make an educated guess as to how Apple’s 2017 iPhone will sell.
