iPhone sales might reach record 62 million this quarter

According to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, Apple is on track to sell between 56.7 million and 62.7 million iPhones during the fourth quarter of 2014 (from October to December). Overall Wall Street estimates hover around 60 million.

For comparison, in last year's Q4 Apple sold 51 million iPhones, and that was itself record breaking at the time. So needless to say, if the company manages to move more product this time around, it will once more have broken its own record.

If Munster is correct, then this quarter's jump in sold units will be between 25% and 45% compared to Q4 2013. And given the record first weekend sales that the new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus enjoyed, it's entirely plausible for Apple to go beyond 60 million by the end of the year. The Chinese market will be a big contributor to iPhone 6 sales, with pre-orders over there reportedly having hit 20 million units.

The analyst also expects the average iPhone retail sales price to go up during this quarter, from the current $630 to around $695. This should be fueled by the higher cost of the iPhone 6 Plus compared to the iPhone 6, as well as people increasingly choosing devices with more built-in storage (which are more expensive than the base models).

In terms of revenue, Apple may be looking at anywhere between $65 billion and $68 billion for Q4 2014. Either of those figures would represent a steep jump from the year-ago result of $57.6 billion, which was record breaking at the time.

As for the upcoming Apple Watch, Gene Munster claims around 10 million will be sold in 2015. And if it comes out before Valentine's Day, Apple could sell 2 million units by the end of March.

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