With the announcement of the iPhone 5 and a potential second model on the horizon, analysts are predicting a strong holiday season for Apple. In fact, Apple could make up to 22 million iPhone units in Q4 of 2011 alone, with the iPhone 4 oddly enough still accounting for the majority of sales.
Analyst Ashok Kumar of Rodman & Renshaw says that Apple will continue to produce the iPhone 4 at a steady pace into this year’s holiday season, assuming that Apple will lower the price point on the iPhone 4 alongside the introduction of the next gen model(s).
Kumar cites supply chain estimates and notes that Apple should make 17 million iPhone 4s in Q4, while iPhone 5 production will only account for 5 million units.
“Total iPhone volumes could be up high single digits sequentially to around 22 million units with the upgraded iPhone representing almost quarter of the volume. The “new” iPhone is expected to be a spec upgrade and not a complete redesign. It is likely that the existing iPhone 4 could be repositioned as a “lower” cost device and will continue to ship until the rollout of the completely redesigned iPhone sometime next year.”
These supply chain estimates definitely point towards the rumor that Apple will introduce a second, cheaper iPhone model alongside a new flagship device this Fall. There’s a possibility that the cheaper device rumored to be the iCloud-based iPhone ‘Nano’ is actually a retooled iPhone 4 with less storage.
Apple sold 20.3 million iPhones in this last business quarter, so these numbers for Q4 seem to be right on track. As The Next Web notes, Kumar’s estimates could actually be considered as rather conservative, with rumors suggesting that Apple will launch its next gen device(s) on all four of the major US carriers this Fall.
Right now, it looks like we’ll see an iPhone 5 with a sleeker design and faster internals this Fall alongside a cheaper iPhone model for the lower tier market. The announcement is expected to take place between late September and early October.
