During the holiday quarter, Apple sold 74.5 million handsets making up half of the companies earnings. Suppliers say the iPhone-maker may sell over 50 million handsets within the first quarter of the year. On Tuesday, DigiTimes estimates shipments of iPhones to grow from 43.7 million units to 50 million units from this quarter last year, making it a 14.4 percent annual increase.

“Demand for smartphones in the Greater China area during the upcoming Lunar New Year holidays will maintain sales of iPhone devices in the first quarter,” said market watchers, adding that Asia-Pacific sales to Apple’s total sales are expected to continue to rise.

Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, was dissatisfied with the iPhone 6 inventory by the end of the year, so more iPhones will be needed to fulfill this request. Hurun research says, “the upcoming Chinese New Year would be the peak of gift giving in China”. The companies sales in Greater China topped $16.1 billion within the last three months of 2014.

On top of that, a total of 25 new retail stores are planned for the country rolling out within the next 2 years. This means there will be a total of 40 Apple retail stores in the country.