“In a new research note outlining his predictions for Apple’s recently completed financial quarter and beyond, KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo shares his thinking about some of Apple’s upcoming product plans that will provide sales momentum in the latter portion of the year,” Eric Slivka reports for MacRumors.
“Kuo remains conservative about the Apple Watch, pegging Apple’s second quarter shipments at roughly 3.9 million and growing to 5.5 million in the current quarter as supply shortages ease and availability expands to more countries,” Slivka reports. “As a result, he believes it will be difficult for Apple to reach Wall Street consensus estimates for 15 million units total through the end of the year, though analyst estimates have seen wide variations and Apple is indicated it will not be reporting Apple Watch unit sales in its financial results.”
“Notably, Kuo believes Apple could launch the Apple Watch Sport in new color options to match iPhone 6s colors later this year, anodizing the watch’s aluminum casing with yellow and rose gold,” Slivka reports. “Kuo and other sources have previously pointed to a new iPhone color (reportedly rose gold) and Kuo indicated months ago that Apple could use new casing options for the Apple Watch later this year.”
More about new Macs and iPads that Kuo expects in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: For take Kuo’s unit sales estimates with a grain of salt, but his supply chain info is often solid, so new colors for Apple Watch Sport could well be in the offing.
I can’t believe Apple would paint the Sport to look like a Edition watch. Apple Watch Edition buyers would raise holy hell and with good reason. Jony would probably say “no” instead of “now” to the marketing people.
I don’t confuse the black SS and the grey (black) Sport versions. Do you? I don’t think buyers (or owners, for that matter) would confuse the gold sport version with the gold edition version either. Glossy vs Matte. Easy to tell them apart.
It’s not a glossy vs matte issue. It’s go.d and rose gold versus plated. Apple will not do that to its wealthy customers. Maybe samdung and gaagle, but not Apple.
Does is seem like Apple would dilute their Edition version? I don’t think so.
If Apple sold 4-5M watches then that is pretty good for a 1st gen device. 15M for the year my be tricky but with supply sorted out and 5 months left in the year including Xmas it is doable.
54M phones would be great
It is the 5.4M Macs that would really impress me. That’s over 20M a year.
iPads are interesting. My wife still uses hers. She’s on her third with the other 2 handed down to my parents. I often forget about my iPad Mini. It’s first gen, slow and the screen is too dark in the daylight.
It seems to me that the iPad either needs to expand into enterprise more or needs to get lighter or potentially bigger. Don’t forget though selling 10M @ 650 ASP is still around 6.5B revenue.
1st
No one knkws whst tye oresent numbers ars !
2nd if ( for arguments sake ) 5.5m is what has sold so far given the dismal launch and supply issues of the first few months … 15 m for 2015 year is not out of question given that holiday season and is going to be the biggest selling month by a huge margin ! …. And thereit will be availible on more countries .
Sorry for the typos!
1st
No one but apple knows what the numbers are!
2nd if ( for arguments sake ) 5.5m is what has sold so far given the dismal launch and supply issues of the first few months … 15 m for 2015 year is not out of question given that holiday season and is going to be the biggest selling month by a huge margin ! …. And it will be availible on more countries .
Thanks for taking the time to make the corrections. I think it shows character!
He has been accurate on his iPhone estimates, but his iPad estimates have been way too low. Since his iPad estimates have been so inaccurate, I’m wondering if his 3.9 million Apple Watch estimate is also too low.
The 54 million estimate on the iPhone is ten percent higher than the current consensus of 49 million.
It would not surprise me if Apple started to offer different color Sport models. They did so with other aluminum iOS products, why not the Apple Watch? Anodizing aluminum is fairly straightforward and inexpensive.
Doubtful that there will be new variations in watch color choices so soon. Maybe new (or difference) band colors… How many Apple Watch buyers actually wanted that neon green color? 🙂 And make the blue a slightly darker shade, like with the new iPod colors.
I am a rather conservative dresser: black sport band in winter, “khaki” sport band in summer would be nice!