Analyst firm Piper Jaffray expects Apple to sell 36 million iPhones worldwide this year thanks to international expansions into new markets, such as China, and the expectations that a new iPhone 4G will be launched mid-way through 2010. The sales forecast might even be conservative depending on new carriers starting to sell the iPhone (Verizon).

Should Apple meet or exceed the expectations set by the analyst firm it would mean a 40% increase over the 2009 forecast of 25.7 million iPhones sold. Apple is still focusing on getting their popular handset into more markets worldwide, and to expand the reach within current markets by giving sales rights to more and more mobile networks, as we have seen in the UK with last years announcements that both Orange and Vodafone getting distribution rights to the iPhone. The iPhone 3GS on Orange was launched in December, while the iPhone 3GS on Vodafone is expected to be launched in the next couple of weeks.

There are several reasons to believe that the 2010 forecast of 36 million is on the conservative side as well, even though competition in the superphone market is increasing with the launch of the Google Nexus One as well. Events that could lead to even higher 2010 sales for the Apple iPhone includes:

1) Upgrades to both the current iPhone 3GS as well as the expectations for the 4th generation iPhone

2) The forecast only includes moderate sales figures for large markets such as China and Russia, including expectations of 1.8 million iPhones sold to a base of 160 million in Russia.

3) The estimates for the US of 15.8 million units does not take into consideration a possible Verizon deal.

4) An increase of only 2.3 million units to 10.7 for Europe might be conservative considering that 2 new carriers will be offering the iPhone in the UK, and that 2010 will mark the first full year of sales across new carriers in France as well.

And if 2010 looks bright for Apple and the iPhone, are we to believe Piper Jaffray, 2011 will be even better with forecasted iPhones sales topping 48 million units.

Just imagine what impact these sales figures will have on the iTunes App Store, that already is showing massive growth surpassing 3 billion downloads in less than 18 months.

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