Apple predicted to ship more than 40 million iPhone units by end of 2016

Analysts at RBC Capital Markets have published a report this week estimating Apple's iPhone sales throughout 2016. Accordingly, the Cupertino company is expected to ship 15 million more iPhones this year compared to 2015 even despite the fact that some buyers may be opting in for the cheaper iPhone SE over the pricier iPhone 6S or 6S Plus. The cannibalization should have a minimal negative impact on the bottom line if the predictions prove to be true.

The same report details that Apple will reap in profit margins of about 35 percent assuming an average production cost of $260 USD per iPhone SE, which should account to more than 6.8 billion USD in additional revenue for the company. More recently, however, other analysts have come up with much lower production costs by analyzing the individual components of the Apple smartphone, so these estimates from RBC Capital Markets may be on the conservative side.

The higher-than-expected initial demand for the iPhone SE is proving to be a great success. The 16 GB and 64 GB versions of the smartphone will sell for 479 Euros and 579 Euros in parts of Europe, respectively, which is 10 Euros cheaper than the suggested retail price. Like almost all multi-tiered SKUs, the manufacturer is expected to have higher profit margins for the higher-end model and will likely make more on each 64 GB version sold.

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