Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Retail, Apple Financial, Deals, iPhone
Analyst: Walmart will sell 4.5 million iPhones in 2009
Which hardly seems believable, but you never know. Yes, Walmart, that bastion of crass commercialism, is going to be carrying the iPhone, that symbol of elegant commercialism, and what we're going to get is a whole lot of commercialism. Analyst Gene Munster (our favorite prognosticator other than the Groundhog himself) says that not only will Apple sell a whopping 45 million iPhones next year, but a tenth of them will be sold right here in America at good ol' Walmart.Apparently he didn't change his numbers from before the announcement of the Walmart deal, since he had already planned on Apple finding other ways to sell the iPhone. But man, that's a lot of iPhones – enough to give everyone in my current city of Chicago an iPhone, and then some to spare (we'd send them to St. Louis, if we actually had a Walmart here to buy them from).
But no one's ever been proven wrong overestimating Apple sales we guess. If you think iPhones are commonplace now, wait until you see them at Walmart.
[via MacBytes]


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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Brian said 7:24PM on 12-12-2008
I remember when people laughed at Apple selling 10 million iPhones by the end of this year. The two sites I bookmarked to go back and comment on seem to have magically disappeared :)
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admiral H said 7:55PM on 12-12-2008
It's going to be tough, but Apple will be able to move another 4.5M iPhone in 2009, even in the looming economy. We all know Steve Jobs won't let the snowballing iPhone momentum die one bit as long as he's in reign...
admiral H
http://admiralh.wordpress.com
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Kendal said 8:34PM on 12-12-2008
Brian, you're not wrong. Gruber from daringfireball.net did the same. It's hilarious- one such lady's website- the author STILL thought she was right in saying the iPhone was a flop.
Not to mention that we could very well get an iPhone "3" next year if we're lucky :P
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fotoboi said 9:39PM on 12-12-2008
it would be interesting to see how that will go... specially the economy is going no where..
too bad WALMART canada is not doing anything :(
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Joe said 10:09PM on 12-12-2008
Well, it was nice being the only one out of 20 of my friends to have an iPhone. Gone will be those days. Thanks Walmart. Apple, give me something else.
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Simon Arch said 12:54AM on 12-13-2008
And *THAT* is why people think all Mac users are snobs. Thank you, sir.
Desertcactus said 10:13PM on 12-12-2008
Is the iPhone going to be cheap? So what if it's cheap. There's a limited pool of people that can pay those service fees.
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John said 10:20PM on 12-12-2008
Precisely. Doesn't matter one bit to me whether they make the iPhone 3G cheap as dirt; until they reduce the price on the data/text plans I'll happily stick with my 1st generation iPhone and semi-reasonable $20/mo. add-on.
Vijay said 10:52PM on 12-12-2008
Typo in your post:
"..Apple sell a whopping 45 million iPhones next year, but a tenth .."
45 million would do Apple good wouldn't it :P
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ChrisM70 said 11:53PM on 12-12-2008
I like this guys optimism, and I hope that the iPhone continues to sell well, but if our "leaders" don't get things turned around and we continue to have 500,000 workers losing their jobs every month, most Americans will be jobless (and possibly homeless) by March, and probably won't be able to justify the iPhone's Apple-y goodness.
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ChrisM70 said 11:57PM on 12-12-2008
By the way... shouldn't your headline say 45 million instead of 4.5 million?
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profcrayzee said 7:51AM on 12-13-2008
unless Chicago has suddenly gotten A LOT bigger, I'd say the 4.5 is the accurate number, not the 45 million....
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Allan L. said 9:41AM on 12-13-2008
Do you guys actually READ the posts before commenting? It's not that complicated: 45 million world wide, of which 10%, 4.5 million, at Wal*Mart in the United States.
ChrisM70 said 11:49AM on 12-13-2008
@ Allan L.:
My mistake. And yes, I DO read the posts.
I must have subconsciously removed the word "Wal-Mart from the headline, I guess.
Thank you for pointing out my error in such a condescending fashion.
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Allan L. said 12:04PM on 12-13-2008
I was rude; you are quite right to point it out and call me on it. I do apologize.
iphonerulez said 2:23PM on 12-13-2008
Gene Munster thinks Apple can sell 45 million iPhones next year. He must be taking into account that there will be some new $50 iPhone for sale. I'd have to say selling a $199 iPhone in that quantity would be nigh impossible. Apple will be lucky to sell 24 million (6 million per quarter).
Well, GM is the dude that has a $230 price target on a $98 stock. He sees Apple's value as no other investor can see it. The iPhone in China is unlikely to reap huge sales so I don't know where he's getting all these people buying iPhones next year.
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Suki Jonze said 7:03PM on 12-13-2008
also, im very intrigued that the iphone and ipod touch in becoming a gaming device....
http://buzznewsroom.com/tech/game-on-apple-challenges-sony-and-nintendo/
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spence said 1:26AM on 12-15-2008
Wallmart? Selling the iPhone? Contemptible.
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