You would think that some of the iPhone hype would be starting to wind down three days after Steve Jobs’ hypnotizing sales pitch on Monday, which rattled off a list of all the most wonderful aspects about the second-generation iPhone, but it seems like people are still processing the presentation. Two subjects that stand out today are: analysts expectations for how many iPhones will be sold in 2009, and some thoughts on how big Apple’s (NSDQ: AAPL) App store will be over time.
– How many iPhones will Apple sell in 2009?: There’s quite a range of estimates coming from Wall Street, starting at the top with Piper Jaffary’s 45 million estimate to Bernstein’s low-end at 10 million, reports Fortune. The bulk of the analysts fall somewhere in between at a conservative 22 million or so. Of course, Jobs said during his speech that to date, they have sold 6 million. Since the phone’s price is falling to $199 and it has more features than ever, analysts are expecting sales to rise.
– The App Store business opportunity: If Apple is lowering the price of the iPhone, does it expect to make money on selling more handsets, or are the revenues going to come from somewhere else? Well, if we were the betting nature, we’d say those revenues will be coming from the App store. Investment bank Piper Jaffray, which had the bullish 45 million estimate above, is also thinking big for the App store, which it says could balloon into a $1 billion market by next year, according to AppleInsider. In a research note sent to clients today, analyst Gene Munster said his $1 billion market figure is the best case scenario that he came up with, and that at that level, it would add 3 percent to Apple’s 2009 operating income. The estimate assumes that there will be 61.6 million iPhone and 23.4 iPod touch users who would buy at least one item at the App Store during the year. Another post on the same subject, broke it down like this, the iPhone is a razor, and the App store is selling blades, writes Mark Evans. He he went a bit further, too. He said: “love your iPhone but get ready to pay through the nose for it.”
{"source":"https:\/\/gigaom.com\/2008\/06\/11\/419-apples-best-case-scenario-it-sells-45-million-iphones-and-makes-1-billi\/wijax\/49e8740702c6da9341d50357217fb629","varname":"wijax_f57644e5eee7c0ef232750f0d013a858","title_element":"header","title_class":"widget-title","title_before":"%3Cheader%20class%3D%22widget-title%22%3E","title_after":"%3C%2Fheader%3E"}