“In a note to investors Thursday, Gene Munster, an analyst at Piper Jaffray, said Apple may begin lowering the price of the iPhone 5C, the iPhone 4S and the discontinued iPhone 4 in markets such as China,” Ian Sherr reports for The Wall Street Journal.
“He said he believes this will happen in part because both of those devices appear to be in full supply. By comparison, he says, demand for the iPhone 5S continues to outstrip supply,” Sherr reports. “‘We believe the testing of other price points could start in the December quarter, but may be more likely in the March quarter when the phones are no longer ‘brand new,’’ he wrote.”
Read more in the full article here.iPhone
Gene Gene the dancing machine!
Yeah Gene, two years in a row you missed iPhone launch numbers by 5 million units…you really know your shit .
After Gene’s comments the other day when he said he didn’t believe Apple really sold 9 million phones….I think Gene needs to STFU!
Agreed. And if Apple’s supply is dwindling, why would it reduce prices? It’s obviously selling its supply, so reducing prices would just reduce profit margins.
Amazing how these analysts keep thinking that a company must play for the most market share and sell for the lowest price. That equals Nokia these days.
Munster is a goddamned buffoon. Why does anyone still listen to this bozo? He pulls factoids out of his ass, and when Apple’s actual statistics prove him wrong, he argues that it is actually Apple who is wrong. He has absolutely no credibility whatsoever.
Correction, the end of that paragraph should have been … We really know you’re shit.
Gene fucked up last year by overestimating iPhone 5 sales the first weekend. He was not alone. I’m not saying that Gene predicted this years iPhone sales accurately but things are different this year than last year. There was only one iPhone last year. This year Apple reported sales of two iPhones. That’s great and I’m happy but it is reality. Also many of the sales this year are channel sales. Not reported last year. But reported this year. That too is reality. So things are not apples to apples when comparing this years iPhone sales to last years iPhone sales. So while Gene may be off in his predictions,and he admitted as much, he’s not off by much if the same parameters are used both years. Simply watch his interview on Bloomberg TV. Too often here, the crowd loves to jump on anyone who doesn’t gush over Apple (see fanboy mentality).That’s reality too. Gene has actually been very pro Apple over the years and has a high share price estimate going forward. Very high. I do my own research and trust my own judgment when evaluating companies. I don’t want an analyst who is pro or con Apple. That’s not their job. Their job is to analyze and evaluate a company. They’re popular here when they have good things to say about Apple otherwise they’re shitheads to most here. That’s sad. Emotions should never be involved with investing. It’s a sure sign of an amateur. One year ago AAPL was in its third day of a precipitous drop off a cliff that would last nearly one year. Up until September 21, 2012 everyone here loved AAPL and all of the analysts. AAPL would surely hit $1000 per share soon! All the analysts and AAPL investors were having a lovefest here. How’d that work out for you? Don’t blame the analysts because you lost your ass in AAPL. The analysts had no control over you not selling as the stock dropped like a rock. Yeah, it’s not their fault. Funny how all of these stupid analysts were geniuses until AAPL hit $702. I sense that same giddy attitude developing here now. Sure, why not? Apple sold 9 million phones over the weekend. Let’s start bragging and bad mouthing anyone who isn’t going crazy since Monday. We’ll show them! Riiiiiiight. Here we go again. It’s the summer of 2012 all over again. The sky is the limit. Nothing can stop us now. All I can say is you’d better be careful. Especially now that Carl Icahn is meeting with Tim Cook on Monday. And it’s odd that the meeting is in New York. Not in Cupertino. Or maybe Tim is just in the neighborhood on Monday? But beware of the Icahn factor. He is evil personified. He’s the most unscrupulous egotistical person you’ll ever see. He is not an advocate for the investor. And yes, by him mouthing off, AAPL could go even higher than it should. But there will come a day. The day when AAPL investors will have their faces ripped off! Carl Icahn will announce he’s unhappy and has sold all his AAPL shares. Of course he will have bought puts and will be shorting the stock by then. Look out below! Carl Icahn is the last thing that investors of any company need to see come through the door. Beware. Be ready. Control your emotions. Quit beating up everybody who doesn’t think exactly like you about AAPL or Apple. Think logically and be levelheaded. You can still love all your Apple stuff. Just act like a grown-up.
http://iphone.appleinsider.com/articles/13/09/25/gene_munsters_iphone_launch_estimates_off_by_5m_units_for_the_second_year_in_a_row
Why would anyone go to the extent of writing a dissertation this long to try and justify a clearly erroneous and humongously irresponsible and blatantly wrong forecast???
Clearly GM, you and your imaginary friends in ‘agreement’, are suspiciously motivated here @ MDN
You GM are, no doubt, the Doubt in FUD.
Truth hurts Jim.
I understand that you and many live in a world of make-believe. No motivation on my part Jim. But one has to wonder why you are so sensitive to the truth? I just hope you haven’t lost too much money in AAPL Jim. Sounds as though that’s your motivation. Remember Jim, your opinion isn’t the only one that counts.
this guy just keeps making stupid crap up. hey gene, where’s the apple TV you said apple was gonna release over 2 years ago
Do you think Munster could get away with this sort of BS with Jeff Bezos? No. Jeff Bezos would be all over him. Only wishy-washy Tim Cook allows this loudmouth to keep spouting BS every week. Amazon is certainly not the most perfectly run company in the world, but you don’t have analysts constantly telling Bezos how to run Amazon or announcing what Amazon should be doing next. Not so with Apple. Every analyst is certain they can run Apple better than Tim Cook and Apple management. That’s why Apple can’t gain any shareholder value. No big investors have faith in how Apple is being run. Wall Street now has a tendency to believe what Munster says before they’d believe Tim Cook. Gene Munster sets Wall Street’s expectations, not Tim Cook.
You confuse the obvious with reality; Wall Street has no interest in Amazon, the profits have been taken, that field has been harvested. The W/S noise around Appple is interest and what you’re seeing is misdirection at its best to build a gap between novice shareholders’ perception of share value and movement and the reality; they talk against a company when they want to buy in.
Bullshit
Gen Munster sure is making a lot of bad predictions lately. Wait … he’s been making bad predictions for years. (Apple Television)
I give it 3 months before they move it to the bargain bin section to move units. Perhaps China Mobile will force their hand to lower prices specifically for them as a precondition for entry. You want to extend iOS penetration in developing markets? This is what you have to do.
BLN, you’re drinking too much analyst Kool Aid. Apple doesn’t care about extending iOS market share if it means cutting profit margins to the bone. As evidenced by the 5s and 5c launches, Apple can sell everything it can make. What more is there to do?
Did Apple sell out of 5c models? Data please. If Apple didn’t, then it is possible it will drop prices next year. Apple does this regularly. It is the 5s model that Apple is struggling to keep in stock.
I don’t recall any lines for the 5c launch, but let’s wait for Apple’s quarterly report. First-weekend sales are highly misleading.
Very good Mike. I believe Apple will drop the price of the 5C. Perhaps not right away but it won’t take long especially in China and India. Apple does care about how many iPhones they sell. And it’ll do whatever is necessary to sell them. But apparently it’s beat up Gene Munster the stupid analyst day. Watch them pile on. Kind of funny. I think Gene is right, I think the 5C price will be lowered somehow. And who knows, maybe he’s even right about the Apple iTV?
Well stated, GM. Apple has to move units just like every other manufacturer.
Not so sure about Munster’s imaginary iTV however. He has always been one of the least accurate analysts i’ve seen.
“In a note to investors…”
Are there people left in this world stupid enough to listen what this douche has to say anymore?
I used to LOVE this guy, a lone voice in the wilderness supporting Apple and AAPL. Now . . . not so much. His support for the company and the equity are tepid at best now, the accuracy of his past predictions laughably poor, and this new one for iPhone pricing in emerging markets: yeah, right. (Two positives indicating a profound negative.)
Not good, Gene.
More importantly, he’s just wrong most of the time. Hard to listen to an investment advisor who misses the mark so badly so consistently.
No they won’t reduce prices in emerging markets.
Apple never does that.
This guy knows fuck all.
Of course they won’t do that. If they did sell them at lower prices in emerging markets, you would get people buying them in bulk and selling them in developed markets.
Apple might extend the scope of their finance deals which have worked in some markets, which would make iPhone adoption easier for some.
Idiot
The only thing I could see Apple doing is offering a more aggressive trade in program for emerging markets (specifically targeting Androids). Maybe in emerging markets still offer the (should now be) cheap to make iPhone 4 as the $300 no contract iPhone.
Apple released too many iPhone models this cycle with only a minor difference in cost but a big difference in hardware. The low end 5C is only a $100.00 less then low end 5S while the high end 5C costs the same as the entry level 5S.
If Apple had only released the 5S in the three colors, there would have been little more than some disappointment by some people. Instead Apple released two families of iPhone in which one, the 5C is cannibalizing Apple itself. The price to performance is so small consumers are picking the slightly, more expensive 5S because it is a much better deal.
Apple has two options on this matter. The first is to ride out the storm and slowly cut back on production of the 5C. Next year Apple introduces new models (3 in metal) and the 5C is gone. This will affect Apple’s stock and reputation. The other is to lower the cost of the 5C, probably $400-500.00, though some will say more and others less.
If Apple waits until late in the first quarter of 2014 to begin lowering the price of the 5C, and then by what, $50.00, Apple will make the 5C an even worse buy, because a few short months later the 5S 64-bit will be the lower model. People will just wait.
Seriously?!? Apple just sold 9 million iPhones in 3 days. Gazelle reported that Samsung Galaxy S4 trade-in rate was up 210%. Exactly what is cannibalizing what?
What you and these stupid analysts don’t seem to understand is that a small (to you) $100 price difference is huge in much of the world. That makes the 5c very attractive to the rest of the world, which previously couldn’t buy a new model iPhone for less than about $800 (or more).
Apple won’t lower the 5c prices, it will continue selling all it can build. What investment publication do you work for as a clueless analyst again?
Yes, a $100.00 is a lot of money when it comes to $200 – $300 range or even $300 – $400 range. But when you get in the range of $600-$700 then the $100 has much less of an impact.
Especially that it is only the 5C 16gb model that costs $100 less than the 5S 16gb. The 5C 32gb costs the same as the superior hardware 5S 16gb.
Say hi to Tim for me Apple exec.
For the love of Pete! Apple released only ONE iPhone model last week: the 5S. In keeping with their longstanding practice, they transitioned the iPhone 5 to a “cheaper” status and lowered the price accordingly. The 5C is NOTHING more, save the niggling changes in the battery and cameras, than the “old” iPhone 5 repackaged in a colored plastic case. Perhaps the stunning hues of Jony’s color palette blinded them to this simple fact!
Quite simply, Apple followed their tried-and-true playbook and realized unbelievable, at least to the “analysts,” sales!
It was, and continues to be, the unrealized ridiculous expectations/exhortations/prognostications of the so-called “analysts” of Apple’s business practices/future plans which are solely responsible for the kerfuffle/confusion/tumult concerning the “simultaneous” release of two allegedly “new” iPhone models.
The retail price of iPhone (any model, at any point in history) was always noticeably lower in the US than in any other market. A good part of the reason for that is the exceedingly low retail tax in the US, compared to virtually everywhere else (well below 10% in the US, vs. well above 10%, and in many countries 20%, elsewhere). But this doesn’t account for all of the difference; some of it is just the required margin of profit in order to comfortably operate in any specific margin.
If iPhone were to cost the same in the emerging markets as it retails in the US, this by itself would represent 15-25% discount from current retail pricing.
Sorry Gene, you seriously lack credibility!
Herman Munster had more credibility.
Gene, go home, you’re drunk.
Hey Bro it time for you to retire.
Gene Munster is running Apple at this point. Apple no longer needs Tim Cook. Munster knows Apple’s every move so Tim Cook is merely a figurehead.
“In a note to investors Thursday, Col. Panik, an analyst at B.S. & Foffonof, said that his analysis of Wall Street analysts leads him to predict that Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster will continue to have no clue, Jeffries analyst Peter Misek will fail to release his head from his posterior, and Philip Elmer DeWitt will likely remain befuddled as to the inverse relationship between AAPL valuation and AAPL profits.”
This kind of guy has no pride and soul in anyway. It’s so funny that people think apple should be like every other companies and forgot what got apple popular to begin with, quality!
The death of PC, netbooks, and whatever else that’s dying is all because of lack of quality, dependence of quantity, in other words just cheap shit!
Quality does cost more than the cheap shit and it’s not for everyone!
Info about other markets is in short supply and Munster is not prescient. In Singapore last weekend, for example, iPhone 5s was in such short supply that only online orders were taken (Singapore residents only) and not all versions of the 5c were available – soon sold out.
A document distributed via Facebook in Thailand yesterday purports to show local pricing of the new iPhones and these seem to match previous levels (for iPhone 5s). When these are released in the “other” 100 countries, short supplies can be expected.
Lower prices? Perhaps when the next iPhone is imminent: current demand can support the current pricing for a long time yet.
Not only does Gene Munster have Michael Dell eyes, I nominate him to be CEO of Microsoft.
Gene messed up his forecast, but we shouldn’t be so hard on him. He is an Apple supporter after all. I don’t think it’s unreasonable that prices could come down on the 5c next March or so, maybe by $50 through special deals at various retailers. I doubt it will be emerging markets only. That doesn’t make sense unless it’s specific to the retail distribution channel over there.