14 DAY TRIAL // The current level of iPhone sales is far from the one originally anticipated by Apple, and the company admitted in early January that it indeed expects demand to go down in the first quarter of the year.
But top-rated Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says Apple’s crisis is likely to come to an end soon, explaining that while poor demand would continue to be experienced, some signs of recovery would be recorded.
In a research noted obtained by MacRumors, Kuo points out that he expects Apple to sell up to 37 million units in the first quarter of 2019, more than the maximum of 35 million units projected by the market.
Apple’s efforts paying off
Kuo originally lowered his estimate from 38-42 million units to 36-38 million units, so his new forecast remains close to the adjusted numbers.
“Our report published on December 14, 2018, was the first to cut the estimation of 2019 iPhone shipments to 190mn units or less; the current market consensus on 2019 iPhone shipments (160–180mn units) is much lower than our estimation and we believe the share prices of Apple and most iPhone suppliers are generally priced in the negative,” Kuo noted.
“We maintain our forecast of 188–192mn units for 2019 iPhone shipments. We believe the downside risks of share prices for the Apple and iPhone supply chain are limited in the near term given that 2Q19 iPhone shipments will likely be better than the market consensus.”
Demand for iPhones recovering in the coming months could be a result of Apple’s cost-saving measures. The company has increased the trade-in value of older iPhones and, at the same time, offered incentives to a number of carriers in certain markets in order to reduce the prices of specific iPhone models.
Kuo believes this could help Apple ship a maximum of 192 million iPhones this year, possibly thanks to the new models launching in September.