New iPhone predicted to smash sales record (BLOG)

Apple says it’s ready to “talk iPhone” on Tuesday. Meanwhile the rest of us have been talking about it nonstop since, well, the last iPhone was introduced in June 2010.

Wall Street has also jumped at the opportunity to talk about how many new iPhones, which are expected to go on sale later this month, Apple will be able to sell. These predictions are made sight unseen and based only on rumors circulating about the tune-up the fifth-generation phone is reportedly getting. Still, they’re betting largely on Apple’s continuing to build momentum with every new release of its smartphone. And whether or not Apple intended for 16 months to pass between new model releases, it may actually help it rather than hurt.

Here are the big numbers that Wall Street is expecting from the next iPhone:

107 million. Janney Capital Markets analyst Bill Choi told his clients in a note on Monday that the next iPhone could gain so much marketplace momentum that Apple will ship 107 million units next year, according to AllThingsD. He bases that on Apple’s adding carriers, like Sprint, in the U.S., and others like China Mobile, whose chairman says it is in talks with Apple.

25.9 million. Canaccord Genuity analyst Michael Walkley wrote in a note to clients earlier this month that he believes Apple will sell almost 26 million iPhones during the upcoming all-important holiday quarter. Apple hasn’t even announced numbers for the July through August quarter (that’s still two weeks away), but iPhone sales are expected to be around 18 million units or so. Walkley’s prediction assumes Apple will sell 8 million more units the following quarter based on a new design.

Way more than 1.7 million. Apple sold 1.7 million iPhone 4 units in the first three days it went on sale during June 2010. But now with 228 carriers to start with, versus the 154 of last year, Ticonderoga Securities analyst Bryan White is telling clients to expect Apple to “shatter” that number during the first three days of sales of the next iPhone sometime this month (via Fortune).