iPhone Sales Projected to Exceed 37 Million for Fiscal Q4 [Analysts]

Apple will allegedly report a record fourth fiscal quarter, according to analysts surveyed by Fortune’s Philip Elmer-DeWitt. Expectations are high: The average forecast of the 33 Apple analysts is that earnings will be up 12% year-over-year, and revenue up 7% to $40 billion.

Actually, today is a busy day for Apple: Besides reporting sales for the quarter ending September 30, the company will launch its foray into the mobile payments market, Apple Pay. The payment tool will arrive alongside a software update, iOS 8.1. Also today, Apple will switch on iCloud Photo Library and the highly anticipated Handoff feature in Yosemite.

While there was previously a gap between amateur and professional analysts, this seems to be narrowing today: both expect iPhone sales to exceed 37 million for the past quarter. More precisely, the average independent (amateur) analysts expect Apple to report 37.47 million iPhone, 13.35 million iPad and 4.80 million Mac sales.

The above contrasts the average estimate of professional analysts: 37.87 million iPhones, 13.17 million iPads and 4.83 million Mac computers.

CEO Tim Cook and CFO Luca Maestri will share more information about the past quarter’s earnings and give more details of what has happened during the past three months, as well as the company’s projection for the holiday quarter, at 5 p.m., ET.