Britain’s O2, Piper Jaffray See Upside to iPhone Sales

CNBC’s Jim Goldman reports this afternoon that Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster now thinks there may be some upside to his estimate, offered yesterday , that Apple ( AAPL ) will sell half a million iPhone 3G S smartphones this weekend. The iPhone 3G S went on sale today at Apple’s stores, AT&T ( T ), Wal-Mart ( WMT ) and Best Buy ( BBY ). Because there were shorter lines , or no lines, in some cases, reported for the various outlets, some may have presumed iPhone sales would disappoint. Munster is among those who’ve been expecting the iPhone 3G S will sell fewer units than did the iPhone 3G last June during its first weekend, a total of 1 million units. Some analysts have had a higher number than Munster, such as RBC Capital’s Mike Abramsky, who posited 700,000 units. Goldman quotes Munster: “ We spoke with over 200 people in line for the iPhone 3G S earlier today in Minneapolis and New York. Our early read on iPhone sales is that our 500k ... (link)