iPhone 4S Release Date: iPhone 4S Expected to Sell 3M Units During Release
Analysts have projected that the iPhone 4S will sell 3 million handsets during its Oct. 14 weekend release.
The fifth-generation Apple smartphone sold out of pre-orders in just 24 hours on Oct. 7, selling over 1 million pre-orders total and over 200,000 on the AT&T network.
RBC Capital Markets analyst, Mike Abramsky suggests that the high demand for the iPhone 4S through its pre-orders will equate to a massive release weekend for the smartphone.
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He believes the iPhone 4S could sell 3 million handsets during its initial three days of release, beating out the iPhone 4's record of selling 1.7 million units during its first three days of release in June 2010.
"We expected iPhone 4S to be the strongest iPhone launch ever, which Apple has now confirmed," Piper Jaffray analyst, Gene Munster wrote in a report to clients before the iPhone 4S was unveiled.
Munster maintains his prediction that the iPhone 4S, then thought to be the iPhone 5, will sell 25 million handsets during the holiday quarter, which runs through December.
Analysts credit not only the host of new carriers that now power iPhones worldwide, but also newer U.S. carriers that have a number of customers that have been anticipating the latest iPhone.
Munster notes that the Verizon Wireless network acquired the iPhone 4 in February, more than six months after the phone was released and talk of the next generation iPhone had already begun.
Piper Jaffray released a survey in August indicating that 74 percent of Verizon iPhone users were waiting to buy the next generation of iPhone instead of buying the iPhone 4.
Munster also recently released a report indicating that 18.8 million iPhone 3GS users who bought the third-generation Apple smartphone just prior to the release of the iPhone 4 are now ready to upgrade to the iPhone 4S.
The Sprint network is now also carrying the iPhone and will power the iPhone 4S and the iPhone 4.
In the past year, 74 carriers added iPhones to their inventory, bringing the number of worldwide carriers of the iPhone up to 288. Another 22 countries are expected acquire to the iPhone by the end of October.
