iPhone release 5M to 6M devices sold

U.S. tech giant Apple may sell more iPhones during its weekend launch this year than in 2012, but not much more, an analyst said. Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster said he expects Apple to sell between 5 million and 6 million iPhones worldwide through Sunday, Mashable.com reported Thursday. Munster, in an investor note obtained by Mashable.com, said he expected Apple would sell about 2.5 million iPhone 5S devices and about 3 million iPhone 5C devices. Pre-orders accounted for 1 million iPhone 5C devices. "We believe that Apple will likely sell all of the 5S's they will produce for launch weekend," Munster said in the note. "Based on Apple not taking online pre-orders for the 5S, which we believe was to avoid customers immediately seeing delivery times for 2-plus weeks out, we believe the 5S is more production-constrained than the iPhone 5 was at launch, likely due to the addition of the finger-print technology." Other analysts were more optimistic on sales estimates, Mashable.com said. BTIG Research estimated that Apple would sell "at least" 6 million iPhones over the weekend thanks to China being included among the countries getting the devices immediately.