Apple May Have Sold 80 Million iPhones Last Quarter

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Published
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Apple May Have Sold 80 Million iPhones Last Quarter

© dannikonov / iStock Editorial via Getty Images

Investors waiting for Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL | AAPL Price Prediction) to announce earnings expect iPhone 12 sales to have reached as many as 90 million last quarter, which would drive revenue of over $100 billion, a first for Apple. The so-called supercycle would have been the trigger. Apple iPhone 12 upgrades may match or pass that of any other iPhone version in history.

The expectation rests primarily with the rollout of 5G. It is the first new standard for wireless service in over a decade. Its speed is measured at about 20 times the current 4G standard. The wireless companies, particularly AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile, have been vague about how quickly the rollout has happened or when most cities and suburbs will have it — let alone rural areas.

However, in many other nations where Apple does well, 5G rollouts are far along. In particular, China, the largest wireless market in the world, is in advanced stages. By some estimates, there are almost 800 million wireless users there, compared to 300 million in the United States.

One of Apple’s sharp advantages in the smartphone business is its margins. Several pieces of research show that while Apple may only have 15% to 20% of the global market share, its profits are 90% of the total. This means, of course, that some smartphone companies lose money on many models.
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Another good piece of news for Apple is that the quarter it will announce soon may not have been its best. If the supercycle has not reached full force, the balance of the quarters this year could be home runs.

According to Barron’s, the optimism has Wall Street excited: “On Friday, Cowen analyst Krish Sankar repeated his Outperform rating on Apple shares, upping his price target to $153, from $133.” They currently trade near $144.
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Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
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.

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