Munster, who now works at Loup Ventures, said the “strong base of potential customers” is fueling investor expectations of unit sales of new iPhones between 235 million and 245 million for the fiscal year beginning October 2017.
Analysts surveyed by Factset are expecting unit sales of 241 million iPhones in the next fiscal year.
Apple is expected to unveil three new iPhones later this year with one being an anniversary edition model which is expected to be packed with top features.
Munster’s estimates about the older iPhone install base seem to chime with other forecasts.
BMO Capital Markets analyst Tim Long said in a recent note that the install base of iPhones is 715 million. Long predicts that this will grow 13 percent by the end of the year, which would bring the total to around 807 million. The analyst said that this year, a third of iPhone owners will be on models that are more than two years old, which is roughly 266 million.
