“Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd, the main manufacturer of Apple Inc products, posted a 19 percent decline in sales in the first quarter compared with a year earlier, hurt by disappointing demand for the iPhone,” Clare Jim reports for Reuters.
“‘A quarterly decline was expected, but not a yearly decline,’ said KGI Securities analyst Ming-chi Kuo. ‘This shows that Hon Hai’s revenue depends too much on Apple, and iPhone orders corrected more than expected,'” Jim reports.
Jim reports, “Hon Hai draws an estimated 60 to 70 percent of its revenue assembling Apple’s iPhones and iPads, and carrying out other work for the California-based company. Apple missed Wall Street’s revenue forecast for the December quarter. Disappointing holiday sales reinforced fears it is losing its dominance in smartphones.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: This is laughable. It’s almost like Claire Jim works for Samsung or something.
This isn’t the first time we’ve noted Reuters‘ bias against Apple. Why is Reuters lying about Apple? Something is rotten at Reuters.
Okay, let’s take these one by one:
• “Disappointing demand for the iPhone”
Besides promoting their own agendas, evidence be damned, Reuters seems to be really good at one thing: Finding an analyst who is bearish on Apple and using his lone opinion as a proxy for the entire world. However, just yesterday Canaccord Genuity upped its Q213 iPhone projection by 7.2% to 37 million units. In the year ago quarter, Apple sold 35.1 million iPhones, an increase of nearly 2 million units in the year-ago quarter. “Disappointing demand?” Really, Reuters?
• “This shows that Hon Hai’s revenue depends too much on Apple, and iPhone orders corrected more than expected.”
I know there’s been lots of rumors about order cuts and so forth, and so let me just take a moment to make a comment on this… I would suggest it’s good to question the accuracy of any kind of rumor about build plans, and also stress that even if a particular data point were factual, it would be impossible to accurately interpret the data point as to what it meant for our overall business, because the supply chain is very complex and we obviously have multiple sources for things, yields might vary, supplier performance can vary, the beginning inventory positions can vary, I mean, there’s just an inordinate long list of things that would make any single data point not a great proxy for what’s going on. – Apple CEO Tim Cook, January 23, 2013
• “Disappointing holiday sales reinforced fears [Apple] is losing its dominance in smartphones.”
In its 13-week fiscal 2013 first quarter ended December 29, 2012, Apple sold a record 47.8 million iPhones in the quarter, compared to the then-record 37 million in the year-ago quarter, and increase of 29% YOY. So, “disappointing.” As per “dominance,” please see the following articles:
Canalys: Apple dominates with 74% of worldwide mobile app revenue – April 8, 2013
Apple increases lead over Samsung, gains on Google’s Android in U.S. smartphone market share – April 4, 2013
Apple’s mobile Web dominance continues to grow; iOS outpaces Android in Web usage – April 3, 2013
With 78% share, Apple’s iOS tightening its grip on the enterprise and taking share from Android – March 8, 2013
Apple rules the skies with 84% in-flight share vs. Android’s 16% – March 7, 2013
Apple iPad continues domination with over 80% usage share in U.S. and Canada – March 7, 2013
comScore: Google’s Android, Samsung continue to lose U.S. share to Apple’s iOS, iPhone – March 6, 2013
Apple’s iOS continues to dominate the mobile enterprise – February 26, 2013
Apple iOS dominates mobile video viewing with 60% share vs. Android’s 32% – February 13, 2013
Apple dominates mobile phone makers with 72% profit share worldwide in Q412 – February 6, 2013
Android’s Web share down 13% since November; Apple’s iOS now over 60% – February 1, 2013
Android’s unit share growth has not hurt Apple’s profit share – February 26, 2013
Apple iOS dominates mobile video viewing with 60% share vs. Android’s 32% – February 13, 2013
Android’s Web share down 13% since November; Apple’s iOS now over 60% – February 1, 2013
