Apple itself has been trying to dampen down market expectations about iPhone sales, but the US stills seems hyped up about the prospects for the phone – which is due to launch about now. Now Merrill Lynch has weighed in with a forecast that monthly shipments will initially total 200,000-300,000 and ramp to about 1m units by the end of the year; that totals about 4m iPhone shipments in 2007. Next year could see 12m sales, still a long way behind the likes of Nokia and Motorola – both of whom expect Apple’s entry to help push sales of their own highend feature-rich models.
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