Apple iPhone sales may hit 41.6 mn by Q3 2018 as product becomes stable business

With its quarterly earnings report scheduled for 31 July, Apple would have likely sold 41.6 million iPhones by the end of the third quarter of 2018, AppleInsider reported, citing an analyst."The tally would represent three per cent growth year-over-year," the report said on 16 July.That number would be slightly below but "essentially in-line" with Wall Street consensus of 42 million units, Gene Munster of venture capital firm Loup Ventures was quoted as saying.[caption id="attachment_4675741" align="alignnone" width="1024"]

The Apple iPhone X in Silver. Image: tech2/Rehan Hooda[/caption]The iPhone is becoming a stable business, performing more like software than hardware, Munster suggested.Specifically, that refers to the notion the product will see slow but predictable growth over the next several years, thanks to an install base in the hundreds of millions, a consistent replacement cycle, and retention rates believed to be over 90 per cent, the report added.According to Munster, the Cupertino-based giant's services revenue is expected to grow 19 per cent in the June quarter.Apple has traditionally depended on hardware, but services like Apple Music, iCloud, and the App Store have given the company a chance to reap recurring fees, AppleInsider report added.Meanwhile, the company sold 52.2 million iPhones in the second quarter of 2018.Sale numbers and earnings are typically lower in the third quarter prior to the launch of new iPhones.