Apple - no ceiling for iPhone sales

Apple's on track for well over 4.1 million iPhone 3G sales by the end of September, and the introduction of the device into 21 countries today has widened the market for the device by, like, 78 per cent.

That's the news coming out of Piper Jaffray analyst, Gene Mumster, who reckons most of Wall Street have missed out on the potential sales uptick Apple's going to see in the coming weeks as partners push the in vogue device.

"Our iPhone estimate of 4.1 million units in the Sept. [fiscal 3Q] quarter is like conservative," Munster said, pointing out that Apple's market reach now extends to a potential 660 million people.

"We believe Apple will trade on iPhone unit volumes for the next several quarters, so we expect the iPhone unit upside to be a positive catalyst for the stock," he said, as reported by Barrons.

With Apple's device clearly driving interest in the smartphone market, causing one .Net developer with knowledge and experience in using Windows Mobile to call it the "most powerful mobile platform ever", spare a thought for lower echelon handset makers, who are seeing handset sales fall as consumers eye up more sophisticated devices. And while badly-timed teething problems will mean some consumers adopt solutions from the likes of RIM and Palm, the ascendant opportunity remains clearly focused on smartphones. The question is just how quickly the industry can catch-up to the evolving Apple mobile platform. And how quickly Apple can change the game whenver competitors get too close.