New data collected from prospective iPhone buyers in China by an investment analyst suggests that demand for the 256GB iPhone X remains outstanding -- which will lead to a massive quarter for Apple.
Amit Daryanani from RBC Capital Markets compiled a detailed consumer survey in China. Of the respondents, 62 percent of the respondents were interested in buying the high-end iPhone X, versus 28 percent in the company's U.S. survey.
Additionally, the higher capacities for all iPhones were preferred, with 66 percent of the potential iPhone X buyers looking at the 256GB model. Additionally, 64 percent of the iPhone 8 family purchasers, and 75 percent of iPhone 7 buyers were looking at the highest storage capacities.
Daryanani believes that there will be a "stronger than anticipated mix shift" in the Chinese market, despite early concerns about the iPhone X price premium, Additionally, the quest for more storage will drive up average selling price for the device, possibly more than Wall Street's previous expectation.
In the U.S. market, Daryanani is still seeing strong demand for the iPhone X. As such, reports about wait times decreasing are seen to be more supply catching up with the very strong demand for the device, and less about any softening in demand for the phone.
Apple is predicting a blockbuster quarter. During Apple's last earnings conference call, Apple predicted between $84 billion and $87 billion in revenue, with gross margins between 38 percent and 38.5 percent.
For comparison, in the first fiscal quarter of 2017, Apple generated $78.4 billion in revenue. In the 2015 holiday quarter following the iPhone 6s release, Apple generated $75.9 billion. Apple cranked out $74.6 billion in the previous year that saw the large-screen iPhone 6 family launch.