Apple will post iPhone sales gains next week, ending a 9-month slump

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Apple next week will report a return to iPhone growth after a three-quarter slump, a group of financial analysts predicted.

According to Philip Elmer-DeWitt, the creator of the Apple 3.0 website, 12 institutional and 5 independent analysts all forecast a year-over-year increase in iPhone sales during the December quarter.

The average sales figure from the 17 analysts was 77.3 million iPhones, which would represent a 3.4% increase over the 74.8 million Apple reported for the fourth quarter of 2015. Analysts' estimates ranged from a low of 75 million to a high of 80 million.

Apple set a record for iPhone sales in 2015's December quarter, but in each of the following three quarters, its iPhone numbers were down from the prior year's. The nine-month stretch was the only period in the iPhone's history during which Apple sold fewer smartphones than in the same span a year earlier.

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