Last quarter, the unthinkable happened to Apple
Kicking off 2012 with first-quarter results will commence promptly after market close on Jan. 24, so mark your calendars accordingly. Will the darling whiff again? Or will it resume its habit of handily destroying projections?
Much of the miss was attributed to would-be iPhone buyers who delayed their purchases amid the media's sensationalizing of the iPhone 5, which turned out to be the iPhone 4S. That pent-up demand was released with a vengeance upon launch weekend, boding well for Apple's prospects this quarter.
With earnings starting to come in for companies within Apple's supply chain, those figures provide even more clues that Apple is about to post a blowout.
Multi-Fineline Electronix
Virtually all of MFLEX's sales -- 99% of sales last year, to be precise -- come from four customers, including Apple, Motorola Mobility
Fellow Apple supplier Cirrus Logic
Carrier partners like Verizon
Apple kicked off last fiscal year with more than 16.2 million iPhone unit sales, and estimates for this quarter go as high as 36 million, which would represent a 122% jump. That would be an acceleration from the 86% unit sales growth put up last year, but this has also been the fastest global iPhone rollout ever, and demand has shown no sign of slowing down.
With evidence mounting, I think we can expect Apple to make up for last quarter's whiff and then some.
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