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The very first paragraph of your linked article reads: "Pre-order response to the iPhone 5 has been massive, outstripping expectations of analysts, who were bullish on Apple's latest smartphone to begin with, and apparently of Apple itself."

How do I reconcile that with your comment here?

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The article is from 19th (Before iPhone was released) where analysts expecting sales to be 10Million during weekend and 6 Million worst case scenario.

Ok. I think what has happened is a) Analysts had lower numbers. b) Analysts blown away by initial numbers which leads to this opening paragraph, c) Analysts raise numbers substantially to 6 - 10 million range as a result and per your highlight d) You assume these last minute updated numbers are expectations that have been set for a while and thus only inline with expectations.

Professional Analysts haven't been able to reliably predict iphone or ipad sales for the past 5 years. Even Gartner looks like they are just throwing darts, so why should we give credence to their predictions?

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