Did Apple Sell 60 Million iPhones?

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Apr 17, 6:50AM EDT

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Now comes the test. As Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) gets ready to announce its most recent quarterly results, the primary focus of investors will be on iPhone sales, because the smartphone continues to represent a huge portion of company revenue. If Apple discloses that it sold anything less than 60 million iPhones, shares may drop substantially. For some, a figure less than 70 million would disappoint.

With the release of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, many on Wall Street will not look at iPhone sales year over previous year’s quarter. Some investors will look at the quarter sequentially, to see if Apple can match the 74.5 million iPhones it sold in the immediately previous quarter. That quarter’s results were based on the iPhone launch, as well as sales over the holiday period. Those two factors pushed Apple’s revenue to $74.6 billion — a record.

Apple management muted expectations for the quarter that is about to be released. It forecast revenue of $52 billion to $55 billion. iPhone sales had an uncanny match to revenue in the holiday quarter at $74.5 billion in sales to 74.5 million iPhones. If the relationship remains, Apple sold 55 million iPhones in the most recent quarter.

Traditionally, Apple management guides low. If that trend continues, Apple’s revenue ought to be close to $60 billion. iPhone sales will need to reach 60 million to support that level of sales.

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While the iPhone was not brand new last quarter, the demand for the smartphone may not have tapered much. Carriers pitched the iPhone 6 hard to bring in or maintain customer bases. Apparently, iPhone 5 models continued to sell well.

For Apple, it is iPhone sales of 60 million or the quarter will be considered a disaster. The impression that the iPhone has made Apple invincible will get stripped away.

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.