Apple Flagship Stores Selling 90 iPhones Daily

Apple sells an average of 90 iPhone 3G handsets, 123 Macs and 240 iPods per day in its New York Fifth Avenue location and other flagship stores-though in an average retail store, those numbers drop to 16 iPhones, 20 Macs and 27 iPods.
These numbers were compiled in an April 15 research note from research outfit Piper Jaffray.
Piper states it spent 25 hours counting iPod, iPhone and Mac sales in Apple retail stores throughout the country during the second week of April.
Based on what it saw, it is predicting that iPhone units will be “flat to down 15 percent on a sequential basis in the March 2009 quarter.” While iPhone units per day per store dropped during the period from Nov. 28 through March 22, the company believes “expanded international availability in recent months takes some pressure off of domestic Apple stores.”
During a March check, Apple sold approximately 22 iPhones per day in a single store, versus 28 iPhones per day in a November 2008 check.
Mac units are expected to be in-line or slightly above estimates of 2.2 million in the March 2009 quarter. On a quarter-to-quarter basis, Piper Jaffrey is modeling for a sequential decline.
“But Apple is selling 28 Macs [per day] on average, indicating [a] slight upside,” according to Piper.
During the time of the company’s checks, Apple had released its updated Macs, with new Intel processors. Though Piper expects the impact of new models may show its checks to be only slightly overstated.
During March counts, the average Apple store sold 28 Macs per day, versus 36 during November 2008.
This year was the first that Piper counted iPods, so it couldn’t offer year-to-year comparisons, but its checks showed iPod numbers to be twice that of iPhones, which was in line with its modeling.
“We believe the iPod number should be in-line with Street estimates of [approximately 10 million] units, helped by the 3/11 launch of the iPod shuffle,” stated the research note.
An April 8 research note from Kaufman Bros. analyst Shaw Wu anticipated a June or September quarter rollout of new iPhone hardware, most likely to coincide with the Worldwide Developers Conference in June.
Wu further predicted that two new iPhone models were likely-one with an improved processor and extended battery life, and a less expensive “junior” version with limited functionality.