Giving the gift of iPhone this holiday season requires that customers purchase a gift card from Apple rather than the handset itself, a process that may understate the company’s December quarter shipments as a result.

Speaking to clients Wednesday, Kaufman Bros. analyst Shaw Wu said he believes Apple is seeing a strong reception to the gift card program, which simplifies the iPhone buying process because shoppers don’t need to wait in line for the handsets to be activated or provide any personal information to purchase the gift.

This is because Apple does not recognize the sale of an iPhone until the unit is actually activated, so it may take a few months to actually register on Apple’s records as a sale.

In total, it is estimated that several hundred thousand to one million units could be impacted by the program, which would in turn serve to boost iPhone shipments during Apple’s March quarter — historically one of the company’s weakest seasonal periods (part of the point of the program no doubt).

Based on these observations and recent reports into the iPhone maker’s supply chain, the analyst is modeling for shipments of 6 million units during the three-month period ending December, or about 10% less than the company’s initial projections had suggested. Apple sent out 6.9 million units last quarter.