Only 10 days after the purported iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C release date on Sept 20, Apple is poised to clear up to 13 million freshly-minted iOS 7 smartphones, a new report said, leading to 31 million units of total sales in Sept 2013.

The same period also closes Apple's current fiscal year, according to AllThingsD, which pretty much ensures that the tech giant is wrapping up the financial year with record numbers, including the performance of its products across the board.

The projections were provided by Pacific Crest analyst Andy Hargreaves, the same report said, which is underpinned on the notion that besides its traditional market strongholds, chiefly in the North American region, Apple will be able to secure significant footprints in new but lucrative destinations like China and Japan.

And that should be case as Apple Insider reported this week that Chinese carriers China Telecom and Unicom will pick up and start selling the 5S and the 5C on Sept 20, the same day that the handsets will hit store shelves in the United States.

By November 2013, China Mobile, which is the biggest telco in the world in terms of customer base, will follow suit, potentially paving the way for the iPhone maker to surpass its Q3 2013 achievements.

"We expect these refreshes, along with the potential for incremental distribution of the iPhone, to drive improved unit volume, stabilized gross margin and accelerating operating profit in the coming quarters," AllThingsD reported Mr Hargreaves as saying in a note to investors.

If realised, Apple will exceed the seven million iPhone 5s that global consumers grabbed in the first nine days of the mobile phone's availability in 2012, said the same report.

It is likely too that in closing out the current year, Apple will amass total sales of more than 38 million iPhones, that is if a considerable fraction of China Mobile's 3G/4G subscribers will accelerate their upgrade momentum in favour of the iPhone 5 and the two new models.

China Mobile counts some 180 million Chinese consumers as currently subscribed to its high-speed networks spread out across the sprawling nation, which economists said will become the world's biggest economy in a matter of few years.

On this account, China has become the new battleground for top-notch global firms, with Apple and Samsung heading the pack.

Gunning to establish new presence in emerging markets and give Samsung a tougher time in China, Apple is rumoured to release the plastic-wrapped iPhone 5C, with less than stellar killer features compared to the 5S to keep its price relatively accessible.

Conversely, the iPhone 5S is mainly designed to tighten the tech titan's grip on its traditional upscale market with its usual mix of glass and metal for a durable and gorgeous build plus notable upgrades such as a fingerprint scanner on the Home button, an enhanced Retina display panel, A7 chip with 64-bit computing and 128GB of on-board memory.

Both the iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C, along with the iOS 7, are believed to be introduced on Sept 10 (Sept 11 in China), shortly leading to a Sept 20 release date.