Apple's iPhone sales will break all records this weekend: Foursquare

  

Apple (AAPL) will see record sales of its newest iPhone this weekend, predicts social app company Foursquare.

The mobile app developer forecasts Apple will sell between 13 million and 15 million iPhone units this weekend with launch of the new 6s model, based on data captured by the company’s flagship Foursquare and Swarm apps.

Specifically, Foursquare data show a 360% increase in visits to Apple stores last week compared to their prior 12-week average. In the week leading up to the September 2014 release of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus models, foot traffic was 330% higher than its previous 12-week average. Apple sold 10 million units that launch weekend.

“It turned out that those 10 million iPhones is exactly 3.3 times more than the average sales leading up to the launch,” said Jeffrey Glueck, chief operating officer at Foursquare. “We’re feeling pretty good that this could be a record year for Apple.

The iPhone is Apple's largest business line. In the quarter ending June 27, iPhone sales were $31.4 billion or 63% of the company’s total sales.

Foursquare is confident that the uptick in Apple stores' visitor count just prior to when new phones go on shelves is a good indicator of how strong sales will be.

“We’re seeing a surge of foot traffic to Apple stores in the week leading up to the launch this year even more than in previous record years,” Glueck said.

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Foursquare data slightly underestimated iPhone launch weekend sales spikes in earlier years. Pre-launch week foot traffic was 2.4 times its 12-week average in 2012 and 3.5 times the average in 2013. Subsequent launch weekend unit sales were 2.9 times and 3.7 times their averages, respectively.

Foursquare’s prediction marks the first time the app company has made a public forecast. It recently launched a business called Places Insights, a commercial product that seeks to capitalize on Foursquare's 50 million users’ “check ins” to businesses and other locations. It counts Microsoft (MSFT), Twitter (TWTR), Pinterest, Garmin (GRMN), and Yahoo (YHOO, parent company of Yahoo Finance) among its clients.

“Essentially, our user base has become, in effect, the world’s largest panel of foot traffic to 65 million businesses in 100-plus countries,” Glueck said. “We started looking at the aggregate anonymous data as a way to predict lots of cultural or business trends.”