iPhone 4S promises to be top phone in the U.S. this quarter

Canaccord Genuity has been doing its homework crunching the numbers, and it has come up with the conclusion that the iPhone 4S will almost certainly be the top-selling phone in the United States for this quarter. “Our monthly channel checks indicated very strong sales trends for the new iPhone 4S and lower priced legacy iPhone 4 and 3GS models,” said analyst T. Michael Walkley.

According to the report, sales in October already point to the success of the iPhone 4S in Q4 2011. Canaccord Genuity indicates that it was the top-selling device on AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint in October, even though it was only on the market for half of the month. Additionally, the iPhone 4 — a now nearly 16-month old smartphone — was the third-most popular handset. This can probably be attributed to its new $99 price tag.

What most have been calling a weakness, I’ve called a strength time and time again. I’m referring to Apple’s iPhone sales in FYQ4 2011, which were approximately 17.1 million units. In a quarter in which Apple’s most recent phone was over a year old, 17 million is pretty impressive, even if it did miss analysts’ expectations. If analysts were disappointed with the quarter, Canaccord Genuity believes that disappointment won’t linger.

Apple has already confirmed a few statistics on iPhone 4S sales so far, namely reaching one million pre-orders in 24 hours and selling four million iPhone 4S units in the first three days of availability, which are both record-breaking announcements.

[via The Globe and Mail]