“Mac sales have continued to grow in the face of a recession and declining overall PC market, but Apple’s iPhone could not escape shifting trends in the smartphone space, analyst Charlie Wolf of Needham said on Tuesday,” Neil Hughes reports for AppleInsider.
“Wolf’s take was detailed in his latest note to investors, a copy of which was provided to AppleInsider. In it, the analyst said that while the Mac ‘seems to defy the laws of economics,’ Apple’s iPhone ‘is not so fortunate,'” Hughes reports. “‘Our analysis indicates that the Mac is the exception, not the rule,’ Wolf wrote. ‘Against a background of progressively rising prices compared to the prices of PCs, the Mac has consistently gained share in the personal computer industry as a result of an outward shift in its demand curve. The only explanation that we see for the shifting demand curve is the now-mythical halo effect.'”
“‘The iPhone’s loss of worldwide market share, then, is largely a composition effect, with smartphone sales migrating from developed markets, where the iPhone holds meaningful share, to emerging markets, where its share is far lower,’ he said,” Hughes reports. “While some have pointed to these market share losses as a major concern for Apple, Wolf isn’t that bothered by the trend. He believes the migration of smartphone sales to emerging markets has been driven by what he called ‘imploding smartphone prices,’ not changes in consumer behavior.”
Read more in the full article here.