Analyst thinks 35 million iPhones sold in Dec. Qtr.

I know this does not come as much of a shocker, but according to BTIG analyst Walter Piecyk, he thinks that Apple could have blown past their original forecast of 30 million iPhones sold in the last quarter of 2011 and reached an amount as high as 35 million!  Walter writers that:

“The iPhone continues to demonstrate strength against a broadening and cheaper lineup of Android phones and waning demand for Blackberry products,”

He also states that demand could surge higher with the iPhone 5 and a 4G LTE equipped device. Also delving further into his crystal ball, Walter has determined that Apple could see as many as 125 million units sold in 2012. And for all those who thought that Verizon would not be successful with the iPhone, wait, were there any? It looks like Big Red will also be fruity over Apple sales as the disclosed that they sold 4.2 million in the December Quarter where they were expected to sell 3.75 million.

At the same time when iPhone sales are surging, it looks like the Kindle Fire has got analysts rethinking their estimates for the December Quarter from the 13.5 million to 12.5 million after the Fire was said to have sold 4 million. I think that is a pretty good number and still think that the Kindle Fire is not a competitor of the iPad, but surely with numbers as good as the Fire got over the holidays, there had to be some sales lost for Apple. Despite Amazon’s Kindle Fire being red hot (haha you like that play on words?), the iPad is still projected in selling 52.5 million units in 2012. There is also talk of a Google Nexus branded Tablet entering the arena in 2012 which could help Android make some kind of showing in the Tablet match, but that could also hurt other Android Tablet manufactures and leave Google no one to tag when the Nexus exhausts itself against the mighty iPad.

I will be the first to say that I love Apple products, have the latest of each, and will probably stand in line next year too, especially for for the iPad 3 early 2012, but I am quite happy to see the competition starting to challenge Apple. Another thorn not mentioned is the Win 8 Tablets, which could mean something else for Apple to watch as they start to feel more and more pressure form competitors.

Is anyone else loving how 2012 could shape up?

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