iPhone, with Verizon, sees numbers going through roof
The iPhone is already the best-selling single smartphone handset on the planet, but things are about to get even bigger. It seems likely that Apple will build and ship as many as 21 million iPhones in 2011 Q1.
Piecing together rumors from a number of parts suppliers, it looks as if Apple plans to build 5-6 million CDMA iPhones for Verizon (and others, see below) during the first quarter of 2011, in addition to increasing production of the current GSM iPhone from 13 to 15 million units during that same period. Doing the math, it looks like Apple is planning to manufacture and sell 21 million iPhone handsets during a single quarter, which is a performance, which if continued, could see it sell 84 million handsets in all of 2011. That, ladies and gentlemen, qualifies as a huge number of handsets.
Of course, it should be noted, as it is in an Electronista story, that it is possible that all those CDMA phones are not meant for Verizon alone. Many of those could go to Asia, where companies like China’s China Telecom, Japan’s KDDI Au and Korea’s SK Telecom could also use a CDMA iPhone. It is probable, if those rumors prove true, that 6 million CDMA phones will not be nearly enough during the subsequent quarters of 2011. It is not impossible to envision 2011 as the first year during which Apple sells more than 100 million iPhone handsets.
These numbers put Apple well ahead in the handset game, clearly eclipsing RIM’s Blackberry line and burying any of the Android competition from any single model. It is even possible that iOS4 would end the year ahead of the over 100 Android phone models should these CDMA-HSC iPhone numbers prove to be accurate. It is also almost certain that the numbers of Android phones will continue to climb, putting RIM in third place in the smartphone OS wars.
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