An analyst Wednesday told clients he expects a new 4GB iPhone during the first quarter, pushing sales of the popular handset to 7 million units beyond the 6.9 million iPhone 3Gs sold in 2008.
“Checks indicate a new 4GB iPhone which may be helping to increase build rates,” UBS analyst Maynard Um advised. Taiwan-based chipmakers may be preparing parts for a new iPhone, a newspaper reported Tuesday.
Unconfirmed speculation of an iPhone nano priced below the $199 8GB iPhone has swirled for some time.
In his note, Um cautioned Apple’s supply orders could change as the company considers whether introducing a new iPhone would cannibalize existing models.
Tiawan’s Economic Daily reported chips for a new iPhone could be ready by March ready for a product introduction in June.
Um said a new iPhone could boost Apple’s handset sales to around 7 million units during the first quarter with 23 million expected for all of fiscal 2009.
Apple may have sold less than 5 million iPhones during the holidays. Tuesday, Citi analyst Richard Gardner reduced to 4 million his estimate for iPhone sales during the last quarter of 2008.
Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.
