In the space of three days last week, four of them issued notes raising their fiscal Q2 unit sales numbers:
— Stifel Nicholaus’s Aaron Rakers to 59.6 million iPhones
— Bernstein’s Toni Sacchonghi to 59.6 million
— CLSA’s Avi Silver to 58.78 million
— Morgan Stanley’s Katy Huberty to 57-58 million
The most wrenching change: The extra 6 million iPhones that took Aaron Rakers to 59.6 million.
Among the factors Rakers, Sacconaghi, Silver and Huberty mention:
- Strong sales in Brazil, India and especially China, where Apple had adequate supplies of iPhone 6/6+ on retail shelves just in time for Asian New Year
- Rapid expansion of China Mobile’s 4G service (53 million new subscribers last quarter alone)
- The estimated 1 to 2 million units Apple might have shipped to refill shelves left empty after Christmas
.
Fortune’s average estimate last week was 56.8 million iPhones, up 29.9% year over year. Today it’s 57.2 million, up 30.9%.
Follow Philip Elmer-DeWitt on Twitter at @philiped. Read his Apple (AAPL) coverage at fortune.com/ped or subscribe via his RSS feed.
