Displaying items by tag: iphone x

(San Francisco)

Apple just crossed the trillion Dollar threshold. Shares have been rising, up over 27% this year, on strong sales figures. Everything seems good, right? Think again, says Barron’s, as it believes the stock could be in for a “clobbering”. The reason why is that Apple’s recent success with the iPhone X may have weakened its prospects for 2019. Because there is a longer and longer timeline between phones that have the dazzle to get customers to actually trade up, currently good iPhone X sales may be sapping demand for 2019, meaning the next few quarter’s earnings might be quite disappointing.

FINSUM: This makes sense to us. Customers only have so much wallet share for smart phones, and the iPhone X took a lot of that this year, which means the next several quarters could be lean.

(San Francisco)

Apple is set to release, not one, not two, but three new iPhones later this year. Bloomberg describes the phones this way, saying “the largest iPhone ever, an upgraded handset the same size as the current iPhone X and a less expensive model with some of the flagship phone’s key features”. The iPhone X has not sold as well as forecast, and there has been consumer pushback on price, which may have led to the change in lineup. “This is a big deal”, says a venture capitalist and Apple commentator, “When you have a measurable upgrade in screen size, people go to update their phone in droves. We saw that with the iPhone 6, and we think this is setting up to be a similar step up in growth”.

FINSUM: We think this is a smart strategy, but we are surprised that Apple is caving in on pricing.

(San Francisco)

One doesn’t quite know how to feel about the news, but the gut instinct is that it is negative. Apple’s earnings came out yesterday, and the company reported its greatest profit ever. But guess what, sales came in weaker than expected for the new flagship iPhone X. iPhone sales dropped 1% in the fourth quarter (the most important time of year), which has scared many into thinking the new phone has not sparked the next replacement “super cycle” that the company and analysts hoped. Apple did mention that the quarter was a week shorter than in the previous year, and that iPhone sales would have been 22% higher had they been equivalent.

FINSUM: Okay so the note about the length of quarter is relevant, but the overall impression is that the iPhone X has failed to live up the hype. And it makes sense to us—have you heard any friends raving about the new iPhone? We certainly have not.

(San Francisco)

In an eye-opening piece of data, Apple is about to break its own record for profitability. The company is about to report fourth quarter earnings, the first quarter which will include the new iPhone X, and revenue growth is supposed to be in the double digits for the first time in years. Apple is supposed to have sold 81m iPhones, boosting revenue 11%.

FINSUM: So what we like about these forecasts is that (if they come true) they are a profitability record and not a valuation record. They will help reinforce the stock’s price.