ANALYSTS SEE WEAK IPHONE X DEMAND
High-price point, lack of interesting innovations cited for decline
APPLE Inc looks like it’s having a not-so Merry Christmas. Analysts have lowered iPhone X shipment projections for the first quarter of next year, citing signs of lacklustre demand at the end of the holiday shopping season.
Sinolink Securities Co analyst Zhang Bin said handset shipments in the period might be as low as 35 million, or 10 million less than he previously estimated.
“After the first wave of demand has been fulfilled, the market now worries that the high price of the iPhone X may weaken demand in the first quarter,” said Zhang.
JL Warren Capital LLC said shipments would drop to 25 million units in the first quarter of next year from 30 million units in the fourth quarter, citing reduced orders at some Apple suppliers. The drop reflects “weak demand because of the iPhone X’s high-price point and a lack of interesting innovations,” said the research firm.
“Bad news is that highly publicised and promoted X did not boost the global demand for iPhone X.”
Apple has been counting on a redesigned 10th anniversary iPhone to boost shipments as its market value advances towards US$1 trillion (RM4.08 trillion).
The Cupertino, Californiabased company is facing new challenges from Samsung Electronics Co, which is quickly recovering from the Galaxy Note 7’s recall after fires.
In the meantime, Chinese brands such as Huawei, Oppo and Xiaomi are also luring away potential customers in China and other emerging markets such as India.
Apple had trimmed its firstquarter sales forecast to 30 million units from 50 million, the Economic Daily News reported.
Apple received a rare downgrade last week from Nomura Instinet analyst Jeffrey Kvaal, who said iPhone X sales as well as other positive factors were already baked into the stock price.
He lowered his rating to “neutral” from “buy”. Bloomberg