“UBS analyst Steve Milunovich sliced his estimates for Apple for both FY 2013 and FY 2014 to reflect the findings of a new survey by Consumer Intelligence Research Partners that finds customers shifting to cheaper iPhones with less memory,” Eric Savitz reports for Forbes.
“For FY 2013, he now sees profits of $44.68 a share, down from $47; for FY 2014, he goes to $52.80, from $55.85,” Savitz reports. “Milunovich maintains his Buy rating on the shares, but trims his target to $650, from $700.”
Savitz reports, “The survey, according to Milunovich, reached some surprising conclusions: Demand for storage has declined from about 30 GB with the 4S to 20 GB for the iPhone 5, with fewer customers choosing the 64 GB model. Demand for older models has increased to 50% in the iPhone 5 cycle to date, compared with 33% in the 4S cycle.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: One question: How many of those older model and lower memory iPhone sales were to buyers who otherwise would not have purchased an Apple iPhone at all?
Only Apple’s executive team — not research firms, analysts or pundits — knows the answer to that one. Obviously, that answer could shine a whole new light on CIRP’s data.
The parade of AAPL analysts to jump to negative and possibly incorrect conclusions based on third-party data continues.