“So there’s a report this week, unconfirmed as usual, that Apple has severely cut back on component orders. As you might imagine, the already sinking stock price has tanked big time,” Gene Steinberg writes for The Tech Night Owl. “If this claim were true, it would mean that sales of Apple gear have really fallen to lower than expected levels. If it were true.”
MacDailyNews Take: Actually, no, if true, it could mean that, or it could mean any number of things: New models, a component supplier switch, etc.
“Unfortunately, the latest report supposedly originated from ‘related upstream suppliers’ courtesy of Digitimes, an IT publication from Asia that has a poor track record for accuracy,” Steinberg writes. “But it is being believed largely because it plays to the belief that Apple is somehow suffering, even though there’s no solid evidence that any of it is so.”
“Certainly Apple will say nothing during this period, but it leaves plenty of room for people to just make up stories. Some of it can benefit traders who might want to push Apple’s stock price down so they can buy up shares cheap and earn big profits when the price goes up. But that assumes Apple didn’t already reach a plateau to which they’ll never return. That requires making assumptions about recent sales, current sales and future sales that have no factual basis, so I won’t go there,” Steinberg writes. “So the critics continue to hack away at Apple, with each piece of potential bad news simply buttressing previous pieces of bad news.”
Read more in the full article here.
Ernie Varitimos writes for AppleInvestor, “I call Bullshit! So, this is where that 10 times spend on advertising is going by Samsung, heh? This is just another case of ‘crack-head journalism’ that is completely void of fact and stuffed to the brim with speculation, designed only to knock Apple down and promote Samsung.”
“The post only refers to Taiwan-based supply-chain makers. I really don’t understand what that category is comprised of,” Varitimos writes. “We need names DigiTimes, otherwise it’s just rumor dude!”
MacDailyNews Note: Here’s an actual “report” from DigiTimes today that reads like a Samsung ad:
iPad mini shipments expected to fall to 10-12 million units in 2Q13, say Taiwan makers
Max Wang, Taipei; Joseph Tsai, DIGITIMES [Friday 19 April 2013]
Shipments of iPad mini, mainly due to competition from several 7- to 8-inch tablets, are expected to drop from 13-15 million units in the first quarter of 2013 to 10-12 million units in the second, according to Taiwan-based supply chain makers.
Samsung Electronics’ recently released 8-inch Galaxy Note 8.0, priced at US$399 for a 16GB version is expected to become a strong competitor to the iPad mini, the sources noted.
To promote its mobile products, Samsung has recently cut the price of its Galaxy S III by US$100 and is offering its 7-inch Galaxy Tab 2 priced at US$199.
The Galaxy Note 8.0 is also estimated to show up in Taiwan in the near future with a 16GB/Wi-Fi version priced at NT$12,500 (US$419) and 16GB/3G at NT$15,900.
Varitimos writes, “Someone is paying someone a lot of money for this kind of exposure.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Gee, which convicted patent infringer, headed by a corrupt crook, is well-known worldwide for being ethically challenged enough to try something as stupidly transparent as this in such a esteemed publication (smirk) as DigiTimes?
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Fred Mertz” and “Arline M.” for the heads up.]
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