How Apple Could Sell 60-70 Million iPhones This Christmas

Analysts expect Apple Inc. AAPL to set another new sales record during the holiday shopping season.

The company sold 51 million iPhones during the year-ago period, beating the previous record of 47.8 million units. Apple also set a new record when the iPhone 6 was released in September.

KGI research analyst Ming-Chi Kuo expects Apple to experience a dramatic sales spike during the current quarter. Instead of the usual 50+ million sales estimate, Kuo expects the company to sell 71 million iPhones.

Sean Udall, CIO of Quantum Trading Strategies and author of The TechStrat Report, also expects Apple to set a new record.

"Apple might have trouble building 71 million iPhones in a quarter," Udall told Benzinga, noting that Kuo's estimates have been accurate in the past. "If I had to guess, I would say Apple easily does 25 percent above prior year. That would get me to about 63.7 million iPhones."

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'Demand Will Outstrip Supply'

Global Equities Research analyst Trip Chowdhry does not make quarterly sales estimates for individual product units.

"What we know is [that] demand will outstrip supply," Chowdhry told Benzinga. "The same will be [true] for Apple Watch."

Chowdhry said that consumers are migrating to the iPhone 6 all over the world.

"Right now the fastest-selling phone in India is an iPhone 6," he added.

"The market is huge. The people who are going to buy an iPhone 6 is probably between 50 and 60 million, which is almost the size of the whole United Kingdom. The opportunity is huge in India. The opportunity is huge in China. And the opportunity is growing in developed [markets] like USA, Europe and Canada."

To be clear, Chowdhry's sales estimate in India is for overall sales in the coming months and years -- not for the current quarter alone.

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Unlikely To Disappoint

No matter what happens, Udall (who said he may adjust his sales estimate in the coming weeks) does not expect Apple to disappoint this quarter.

"If they don't sell more [iPhones] than last year, that's going to be weird," said Udall. "That would go beyond disappointing and would be weird. I would be pretty shocked if they don't beat 55 million units sold. Demand is still outstripping supply."

Disclosure: At the time of this writing, Louis Bedigian had no position in the equities mentioned in this report.