14 DAY TRIAL // After selling a record number of new iPhones, Apple this week has been forced to reiterate its earnings forecast for the fiscal quarter ending September 28.
I can’t tell you how much Apple had originally projected for its fourth quarter earnings this year, but I’m assuming the numbers were a tad lower than what they’re giving to SEC at the moment.
“Apple expects total company revenue for the fourth fiscal quarter to be near the high end of the previously provided range of $34 billion to $37 billion, and expects gross margin to be near the high end of the previously provided range of 36 percent to 37 percent,” reads the new filing, according to sec.gov.
The 9 million units sold also caused Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster to almost fall off his chair, as he put it during a televised interview with Bloomberg, where he blamed “channel fill” for his 5-6 million estimate.
As Munster explained, channel fill means when AT&T buys the phones from Apple and doesn’t necessarily sell them to the public until later.