Brisk iPhone 7 sales expected to bring Apple best holiday quarter revenue ever

Santa apparently left Apple something nice under the tree this year. Brean Capital analyst Ananda Baruah thinks that Apple could end up the first fiscal quarter of 2017 (ending December 31, 2016) with earnings of greater than $76 billion. That figure would be better than the record set just last year. Of course, Santa may also be leaving a lump of coal for later in the year…

The good quarter expectations are based on increased purchases of the iPhone 7 Plus versus the iPhone 7 compared to the iPhone 6s, better than expected Mac sales, and the release of the Apple Watch 2 in September. That lump of coal? Brean Capital thinks that the growth will come at the expense of the second fiscal quarter of 2017, due to weakness in the Chinese market. 

Looking later in 2017, the company sees less demand for the new iPhone range expected in September. However, alleged Apple manufacturing documents that were leaked on Tuesday say that Apple will bring two upgraded iPhone 7 models — most likely an iPhone 7s and iPhone 7s Plus — along with a high end model that will have a glass sandwich design, borderless OLED display, invisible home button, wireless charging and more.