Ok. I think what has happened is a) Analysts had lower numbers. b) Analysts blown away by initial numbers which leads to this opening paragraph, c) Analysts raise numbers substantially to 6 - 10 million range as a result and per your highlight d) You assume these last minute updated numbers are expectations that have been set for a while and thus only inline with expectations.

Professional Analysts haven't been able to reliably predict iphone or ipad sales for the past 5 years. Even Gartner looks like they are just throwing darts, so why should we give credence to their predictions?