Analysis: 575M Potential iPhone Buyers, 12.9M iPhones Sold by the End of 2008

In a note to clients rolled out on Friday, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster explained Apple's latest move regarding the iPhone, revealing key numbers to the carriers announced so far, the countries covered and the currently available market.

The key numbers in Munster's report indicate there are 46 carriers announced to date (up from 6 that are currently available to tie your iPhone to), 42 countries covered (up from 6) and a whopping 575 million total available market (up from 153 million).

Munster admits he didn't expect Apple to announce such a great number of deals with overseas carriers for the current year, while "The iPhone's international rollout," he writes, "is about 8 months ahead of our original schedule."

Therefore, "assuming that the device maintains its current 3% market penetration," Fortune notes, "the recent announcements give Munster 'increased confidence' that Apple will meet his published sales target of 12.9 million iPhones in calendar year 2008." The publication reveals that Apple is quite on track with Muster's predictions and then some: 3% of 575 million is 17.25 million iPhones.

Munster also notes in his report to clients that, for 2009, he is sticking to estimates of 45 million iPhones sold, "a target that represents the high end among mainstream Apple analysts," Fortune notes. Apple is going to achieve this, Munster says, "by 1) opening up China and Japan, for a total available market of 1.1 billion, 2) introducing a lower-cost iPhone in January '09, and 3) increasing its market penetration to 6%," Fortune reveals. This is said to have a positive impact on iPhone sales, but a slightly negative one on the actual iPhone revenue.

Apple as well is undoubtedly confident of selling over 10 million iPhones this year, thanks to the benefits iPhone 2.0 promises, including 3G networking and the upcoming App Store.