“Cowen and Company analyst Karl Ackerman’s note to investors, a copy of which was provided to AppleInsider, claims research into the supply chain in Asia last week indicates approximately 53 million iPhone X units were built in the first quarter of 2018,” Malcolm Owen reports for AppleInsider. “This is said to be ‘largely in line’ with an estimate made 30 days ago, suggesting the production would produce 52.5 million units. ”
“While overall units are largely unchanged, build expectations for the [iPhone] X continue to be curtailed,” writes Ackerman, suggesting the second quarterly production will result in 17 million units, down from the month-ago prediction of 21 million,” Owen reports. “The analyst says the firm will still not rule out Apple reporting unit sales slightly higher than the number of units produced in the first quarter, ‘given the mismatch between builds and sell-in numbers’ in the fourth quarter of last year.”
“Going into the second quarter, the demand momentum for iPhones as a whole is thought to be under expectations based on the firm’s field work, with a ‘more concrete view’ of second quarter production putting the device family at approximately 42.5 million units,” Owen reports. “Ackerman advises this figure also includes 9 million iPhone X units, but is overall down from the firm’s preliminary estimate of between 13 and 16 million units.”
Read more, including discussion of a next-gen iPhone SE, in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple adjusts iPhone production according to seasonality and demand constantly and with precision. The only “expectations” Apple is meeting or not meeting are those of outsiders (“analysts”) who do not know and cannot see the whole picture.
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… There is just an inordinate[ly] 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
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iPhone X was the best-selling smartphone in the world in the December quarter according to Canalys, and it has been our top selling phone every week since it launched. iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus rounded out the top three iPhones in the quarter. In fact, revenue for our newly launched iPhones was the highest of any lineup in our history, driving total Apple revenue above our guidance range… The iPhone X was the most popular and that’s particularly noteworthy given that we didn’t start shipping until early November, and we’re constrained for a while. The team did a great job of getting into supply demand balance there in December. But since the launch of iPhone X, it has been the most popular iPhone every week, every week sales. And that is even through today, actually through January… We feel fantastic, particularly as it pertains to iPhone X. — Apple CEO Tim Cook, February 1, 2018