“Indications from Apple’s supply chain suggest that iPhone and Mac sales are picking up strength ahead of Christmas, while the iPad remains on pace for a record setting quarter, albeit with softer sales than expected [by some analysts],” Neil Hughes reports for AppleInsider.
“Analyst Shaw Wu with Sterne Agee issued an update to investors on Wednesday on Apple’s current quarter,” Hughes reports. “His checks within the company’s global supply chain found that iPhone momentum has been strong across the board, with strong sales of the iPhone 4S, as well as the iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS. ‘This is helping drive greater smartphone adoption as well as enabling share gains against Android and BlackBerry (as evidenced with both HTC and RIMM missing numbers),’ Wu wrote. ‘Our supplier checks indicate much improved production capacity but demand continues to outstrip supply.'”
Hughes reports, “While the iPhone and Mac are reportedly ahead of Wu’s expectations, he said iPad shipments are “a little light” in the current quarter, prompting him to reduce projected sales from 15 million to 13.5 million. Wu said iPad sales are soft partially due to competition from the Amazon Kindle Fire, but also because some users are opting for a more full-featured MacBook Air. Even if Wu’s prediction were to prove accurate, 13.5 million iPad units sold in the holiday quarter would be a new record for Apple.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
Since by far the biggest sales in Q4 for consumer-oriented companies come from December, there is no reliable way to estimate sales until this months passes. So lets see.
More pre Q1 results manipulation by Wu. Inflate numbers above Apple’s own projections, then mark down when fictional numbers are not reached >> make profit when real numbers crush expectations.
Predictable and boring.
‘while the iPad remains on pace for a record setting quarter, albeit with softer sales than expected [by some analysts],”
This slays me. How can you break records and yet still make it sound disappointing??????
Well, Q3 results are example of this ‘analytical’ BS.
This is one in a series of bullish statements about iPhone sales in recent days. While one may complain about the objectivity of particular analysts, they all seem to be headed in the same direction, including those who monitor Apple’s component parts makers.
This morning AT&T reported that its earnings will come in below guidance because smartphone sales are far stronger than expected (so it will be obliged to pay larger-than-expected subsidies to Apple and other phone makers). In only two months of the Oct.-Dec. quarter, AT&T has already sold as many smartphones as its previous quarterly record.