Apple sold an estimated 55.3m iPhone devices in last three months of 2013

21 Jan 2014

The iPhone 5c

An analysis of 44 different analyst estimates has revealed an average of 55.3m iPhone devices sold in the last three months of 2013 leading up to Christmas.

The analysis by Fortune that collated 44 analyst predictions and estimates represents a potential 16pc increase in sales of iPhone devices compared with last year.

In October last year, Apple launched two new iPhones – the colourful plastic iPhone 5c and the powerful iPhone 5s, which comes with fingerprint recognition and an A7 processor capable of 64-bit computing.

At the same time, Apple brought down the price of its iPhone 4s models and phased out production of iPhone 5 models.

The move has been seen as Apple’s foray into the low-cost smartphone world and it appears to be paying dividends, even though it has a long way to go to dent Android’s 80pc share of the world smartphone market.

However, in recent weeks, Apple has also struck a major deal with the world’s largest mobile network, China Mobil,e that will see Apple increase its penetration in the massive Chinese mobile market, no doubt adding impetus to its efforts next year.

fortune

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com