The investment banking division of the Royal Bank of Canada said Thursday that Apple's back-to-school promotion is showing signs that it will drive the company to a record-smashing quarter in which sales of Macs could exceed 3 million.
In a sign of "unprecedented pent-up demand" for the upcoming iPhone 3G, investment bank RBC Capital Markets says its own proprietary study has revealed that more than half of consumers who are in the market for a smartphone intend to purchase one of the new Apple handsets after its launch on July 11th.
The impact of the iPhone 3G's faster Internet access, new markets, third-party apps, and very low pricing should trigger a new sales rush that does for the iPhone what 2005 accomplished for the iPod, according to a new report from RBC Capital Markets.
Although everyone's eyes are on the launch of a top-tier 3G iPhone next week, the release of a lower-cost entry phone could push Apple to ship more than twice as many phones as originally forecast this year, says RBC Capital Markets.
Wall Street folk remain immersed this week in the hunt for Apple's missing iPhones, with one firm saying it believes that the majority of the unaccounted for units are in the hands of unlockers rather than idling in inventory.
With Apple having announced its new iMac line on Tuesday, analysts for RBC Capital Markets say they're confident the company will ship a record 2 million Mac systems during the current quarter ending September.
Speaking to analysts for RBC Capital Markets this week, Apple's Vice President of iPod Product Marketing, Greg Joswiak, said the first software update for his company's iPhone handset is due to arrive shortly.
Apple Inc. may be planning to manufacture as many as 8 million iPhones before the end of the 2007 calendar year, ahead of second-generation models that will reportedly include more storage capacity and brandish higher-resolution displays, according to researchers at RBC Capital.
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