Yesterday, “research firm Canalys… issued a report claiming that Apple had shipped 29 million iPhone Xs in its fiscal 2018 Q1, ending in December,” Mark Hibben writes for Seeking Alpha. “The number is really stunning when one considers that it’s probably comparable to the number of iPhone 7s sold in the December 2016 quarter. I base this on the fact that Apple reported selling 78.29 million iPhones worldwide in the December 2016 quarter.”
“The mathematical implication of the Canalys number is even more stunning when combined with the CIRP product mix data. If 29 million iPhone Xs constitute about 20% of global sales, then Apple sold 145 million iPhones in the December quarter, for a y/y gain of 85%,” Hibben writes. “OK, I don’t think the y/y unit shipments gain is that high. But it’s probably pretty high.”
“It’s more likely that Canalys has overestimated global iPhone X unit sales. Let’s say that they were off by about a third, and that actual shipment number is 20 million,” Hibben writes. “That still implies total iPhone unit sales of about 100 million, for unit growth y/y of 27.7%.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: 100 million units would be jaw-dropping if achieved. Regardless, we still expect a record in both iPhone unit sales and iPhone revenue when Apple reports on February 1st.
SEE ALSO:
Canalys: Apple shipped 29 million iPhone X units in Q4 2017; world’s best-selling smartphone over the holiday season – January 23, 2018
iPhone X accounted for 1 in 5 iPhones sold by Apple in America last quarter – January 22, 2018
Apple’s iPhone X offers the best smartphone display in the world and its also the most resistant to OLED burn-in – January 2, 2018
DisplayMate: Apple’s iPhone X has the most color accurate display we’ve ever measured; it is visually indistinguishable from perfect – November 8, 2017
It’s hard to know what to make of this, especially as there is a well established pattern of downplaying Apple’s performance for most of the quarter and then in the couple of weeks prior to the financial report, analysts start talking about incredible results. Cynical observers might conclude that it’s an attempt by manipulators to set an impossible target so that Apple can be seen to fail.
The only figures that matter are the actual official sales figures released by Apple. All other figures are merely guesses and many published figures turn out to be grossly inaccurate.
The opposite is also true. Many also downgrade or down play Apple earning before earnings to manipulate it lower…. for either shorting or creating Fud so they can buy lower.
And many of that 100 million didn’t even blink when plunking down over a thousand bucks for a phone. $350 for a smart speaker for them will be a drop in the bucket.
THIS is the market Apple is selling to. And this was just in the LAST QUARTER!! Imagine how many phones were sold in the last year and it’s easy to see why, without a discount, the HomePod is going to legitimize the market.