Mike Wuerthele
New data collected from prospective iPhone buyers in China by an investment analyst suggests that demand for the 256GB iPhone X remains outstanding — which will lead to a massive quarter for Apple.
Amit Daryanani from RBC Capital Markets compiled a detailed consumer survey in China. Of the respondents, 62 percent of the respondents were interested in buying the high-end iPhone X, versus 28 percent in the company's U.S. survey.
Additionally, the higher capacities for all iPhones were preferred, with 66 percent of the potential iPhone X buyers looking at the 256GB model. Additionally, 64 percent of the iPhone 8 family purchasers, and 75 percent of iPhone 7 buyers were looking at the highest storage capacities.
Daryanani believes that there will be a "stronger than anticipated mix shift" in the Chinese market, despite early concerns about the iPhone X price premium, Additionally, the quest for more storage will drive up average selling price for the device, possibly more than Wall Street's previous expectation.
In the U.S. market, Daryanani is still seeing strong demand for the iPhone X. As such, reports about wait times decreasing are seen to be more supply catching up with the very strong demand for the device, and less about any softening in demand for the phone.
Apple is predicting a blockbuster quarter. During Apple's last earnings conference call, Apple predicted between $84 billion and $87 billion in revenue, with gross margins between 38 percent and 38.5 percent.
For comparison, in the first fiscal quarter of 2017, Apple generated $78.4 billion in revenue. In the 2015 holiday quarter following the iPhone 6s release, Apple generated $75.9 billion. Apple cranked out $74.6 billion in the previous year that saw the large-screen iPhone 6 family launch.
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33 Comments
Huh, it's almost like Apple knows what they're doing and the armchair CEOs don't.
So can we please, finally, start just laughing at the naysayers instead of trying to respond to them? I completely remember the cacophony surrounding the introduction of the iPhone X. Apple had crossed the line, Apple had jumped the shark, no one was going to pay $1K for a phone, the notch would kill sales left and right, the drum beating went on and on. They say the same things over and over again and they are always shown to be wrong.
Now comes the iMac Pro and those same critics are trashing it too. It’s not really a Pro machine because you can’t open it up and fiddle around inside, as if real professionals with deadlines have time to do that anyway. No one is going to buy it either, right? I can just imagine what will be said when the new Mac Pro is introduced next year. It will be more of the same from that crowd. And god forbid a new Mac mini is released next year. They will jump on that like flies on a bull's balls.
I think the naysayers and trolls have jumped the shark as they haven’t had anything new to say about Apple for years now. You can only predict failure so long until people start laughing at you. I put this crowd right up there with the deranged, self-taught theologians who regularly predict the end of the world and the coming of the Rapture. Next time, next time they’ll be right. No really, next time.
I still see 90+ billion this quarter.
Poll question: Which would you be interested in, a Ferrari or a Kia? If you are interested in a Ferrari do you want the California or the La Ferrari? Such polls are meaningless as they don't accurately reflect actual purchases.
I have no doubt Apple will have a stellar quarter with revenues likely at the high end of their estimates. There certainly was a large market built up for a premium phone since Apple hadn't significantly redesigned the phone since 2014. The key will be the quarterly estimates for January-March. Wait times on the iPhone X are near zero in some of the major markets. Is this because of increased supply or satiated demand? If Apple doesn't forecast a similar percentage growth in same-quarter revenues and unit sales than the Jan-Mar quarter in 2015 then I think it will be a strong indication they have hit a plateau and are depending on increases in average selling price to drive revenue growth as opposed to increased market share.
Apple needs to get out of the 225 million units sold rut it has been in for the past three years. Prior to the 6 they saw regular double-digit market share increases, now it is basically flat. The iPhone X is going to need to sell a whole lot of units in the 2nd and 3rd quarters, and I've got my serious doubts there are a lot of buyers at this point for a $1,000+ phone that are still waiting this year.
It will be very interesting to see what Apple themselves predict for the next quarter. I don't think many of these analysts have any better information than the armchair CEOs on the message boards.
I would love to be proven wrong, because from what I can tell iPhone X is no where near what the black market anticipation were in China. Basically they were expecting another iPhone 4 / 6 Plus volume, but it is definitely not anywhere close. iPhone 7 is doing surprisingly well though. Really cant wait to see those results.