Analyst Raises Apple Estimates on iPhone Sales

by , 1:25 PM EDT, July 2nd, 2007

Apple's iPhone seems to have sold well during its inaugural weekend. So well, in fact, that American Technology Research analyst Shaw Wu raised his fiscal 2007 revenue estimate to US$23.5 billion from $23.3 billion, and $30.2 billion for 2008, up from $30 billion.

"Over the next 2-3 years, we believe Apple has the potential to become a top selling 'smart' phone vendor," Mr. Wu said. "Which could bring this category into the mainstream, just as it did with the iPod and portable media players."

He added that the iPhone is likely to become the fastest selling product in Apple's history, and could even become one of the fastest selling products in the consumer electronics market.

Mr. Wu added "In our view, it is more than just a classic old school product in that it is landscape changing, being the first true convergence device that combines the best media player (widescreen vPod), a near full-function web browser (Safari), e-mail/contacts/calendar, and a cellular phone."

Based on initial response, Mr. Wu is now modeling 250,000 iPhone sold in the last two days of the June quarter, up from his earlier estimate of 50,000. He expects Apple will report $5.3 billion in revenue for the quarter with a $0.73 EPS, up from his earlier estimate of $5.22 billion and $0.70 EPS.

Mr Wu is maintaining his "Buy" rating for Apple, but is raising his target price from $145 to $165. Apple is currently trading at $121.299, down 0.741 (0.61 %).