Piper Jaffray senior research analyst Gene Munster, who is not pictured at right, is continuing his love affair with all things AAPL. In the last few weeks he's told us that the iPhone will be picked up by another U.S. carrier in 2010, that Steve Jobs will be on hand at the September 9th Apple music event, and that there would be an AppleTV announcement at the event (this was quashed by Jim Dalrymple at The Loop).

Now the Munster-man is back with even more good news. He believes now that manufacturing capacity for the iPhone 3GS has ramped up and supply is adequate, Apple is on track to sell 7 million iPhones during the quarter ending September 30th.

According to Munster, tight supplies of the 3GS at launch led AT&T store managers to recommend the less pricey 3G to customers. Now that supplies are adequate, store managers are recommending the 3GS, which remains the best selling device at AT&T outlets. Piper Jaffray's figures indicate that during August, the iPhone took share from BlackBerry, the Nokia E71x, and other competitors.

Munster's last prediction isn't so rosy, but is based on historical precedent -- he expects Apple's stock price to dip after tomorrow's event by about 1 percent.

[via AppleInsider]

Everyone's favorite Apple analyst, Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray, is positively bullish on Apple and the iPhone.

In a forecast released today and reported in AppleInsider, Munster says he expects Apple to sell a half-million units of the iPhone 3G S this weekend. This is much more than the 270,000 first-generation iPhones sold in the first weekend in 2007, but pales in comparison to the 1 million mark set last year with the release of the iPhone 3G.

The difference this year? When the iPhone 3G was released in 2008, the new equipment was also accompanied by a drop in price and availability in 21 countries. For new users, the 3G S is the same price as the 3G, and the release of the 3G S tomorrow will only happen in 8 key market countries.

Munster's other prognostications include a total of 3 million iPhones sold in June for a quarterly total of 5 million, and an estimate of 7 million sold in the upcoming September quarter. He continues to rate AAPL as a buy, and has a $180 target share price for Apple.

With WWDC 09 coming up next week, Wall Street analysts are polishing their crystal balls and commenting on what they think we'll hear about. In a post on Barron's Tech Trader Daily blog, Eric Savitz polled the top tech analysts for their ideas.

Yair Reiner of Oppenheimer believes that the new iPhones will be delayed until WWDC so that the conference focus will be on Snow Leopard and iPhone OS 3.0. Shaw Wu of Kaufman Brothers is in agreement, and Wu also believes that AT&T will offer more flexible service plans, and that the iPhone line will split into a high-end version with improved battery life and a junior version with less functionality.

Savitz's post goes on to tap Phil Cusick of Macquarie Research for his ideas, which also include the split of the line into high-end and entry-level iPhones. He's noted as saying that the high-end phone will include both a front camera for video chat and a rear mounted autofocus camera, but that an OLED screen won't be a feature of this device.

Kathryn Huberty of Morgan Stanley is cited as believing that the new iPhones will be unveiled at WWDC, with a $100 price cut, lower AT&T service plan fees, and entrance into the China market, thereby increasing demand. Huberty is noted as thinking that Apple won't add another US carrier before 2011. Vincent Rech of Societe Generale also believes that China is ripe for an iPhone distribution deal.

Everybody's favorite research analyst, Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray, has high hopes for AppleTV in the near future, according to a post on the Wall Street Journal's All Things Digital site today.

Blogger John Paczkowsi cites Munster as believing that Apple is working on both a new AppleTV for a September release and an App Store to go with it. WWDC 09 might be used as a launch site for an AppleTV SDK, along with an announcement of an App Store for AppleTV for a 2010 launch.

Munster, who has a pretty good track record at Apple predictions, feels that future AppleTV apps could include digital video services for expanding content offerings (he cites Hulu as an example) and that an SDK would enable use of the iPhone or iPod touch as a game controller.

The consensus? Pretty much everyone believes that new iPhones are imminent, although the timing of the release is up in the air. Several of the analysts believe that the new devices will be announced at a separate Apple event towards the end of June where Steve Jobs can make his long-awaited return to the company.

Whatever the outcome of WWDC, be sure to stay tuned to TUAW for our continuing coverage of this important event.