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Apple Drops to 11-Month Low on Reports of IPhone Cutbacks

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發表於 2013-1-15 09:12:53 | 顯示全部樓層 |閱讀模式
by Amy Thomson and Karl Baker - Jan 14, 2013, Bloomberg

Apple Inc. declined to the lowest price in 11 months after the Nikkei newswire reported that production of the iPhone was cut on weak demand.

Apple ordered about half the 65 million iPhone 5 displays it originally targeted for this quarter, Nikkei said, citing an unnamed executive at a component maker. Manufacturing curbs have been widely known since December, according to Steven Milunovich and Mark Moskowitz, analysts at UBS AG and JPMorgan Chase & Co., respectively.

Last month, Apple cut production by about 30 percent, which may be the result of inventory rebalancing or lower consumer demand, Milunovich wrote in a research report today. Order cuts may also be due to suppliers becoming more adept at building the latest iPhone, reducing the need for Apple to order excess parts, Moskowitz wrote in a note to clients today.

“The bigger message related to any potential order cuts could be that iPhone 5 manufacturing yields and thereby gross margin are on the rebound,” Moskowitz said. He said that his projection for 25 million iPhone 5 units to be sold in the quarters ending in December and in March will be exceeded under the scenario Nikkei reported.

The stock fell 3.6 percent to $501.75 in New York, the lowest closing price since Feb. 15. Apple extended its decline to 28 percent since hitting a record high in September.

Bethan Lloyd, a spokeswoman for Apple in the U.K., didn’t return calls seeking comment. Among Apple suppliers in Asia, representatives from Sharp Corp., Japan Display Inc. and Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. declined to comment.

‘Old News’

“Order cuts appear to be old news,” Milunovich wrote. He said he reduced his iPhone sales estimates in December after checks with suppliers indicated a reduction in the number of phones being made.

IPhone sales could be slowing because smartphones are already common in developed markets, where Apple is strongest, said James Cordwell, an analyst at Atlantic Equities Service in London.

“We’re getting close to saturation,” said Cordwell, who rates Apple shares “overweight” and doesn’t own any. “The real growth is going to come from emerging markets, and Apple’s share in emerging markets is much lower than it is in other markets at the moment due to such high prices.”

Apple is also facing increasing competition from manufacturers using Google Inc. (GOOG)’s Android software, including Samsung Electronics Co. (005930) Android phones are gaining users in emerging markets because they are cheaper than the iPhone.

Increased Competition

Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM), the maker of the BlackBerry smartphone, is trading at its highest level in almost a year amid signs that demand for the iPhone may be waning.

RIM’s stock rose 10 percent to $14.95, following a 14 percent gain on Jan. 11. Shares of the Waterloo, Ontario-based company have gained 26 percent this year.

“The iPhone is no longer unique, fashion fatigue will transpire and the rich price premium will be impossible to sustain,” Per Lindberg, an analyst at ABG Sundal Collier in London, wrote in a research report today.

First-quarter iPhone shipments may decline 25 percent from the previous period, Peter Yu, an analyst at BNP Paribas, said today in a note. Analysts’ average second-quarter revenue estimate for Apple may drop by about $4 billion to $5 billion and the earnings-per-share projection may decline by $1 to $1.50, Abhey Lamba, an analyst at Mizuho Securities USA, said in a report.

The iPhone may be facing supply chain constraints as Apple shortens its product cycle to introduce new models more frequently, Walter Piecyk, an analyst at BTIG LLC, said in an interview.

“It takes a manufacturer time to do it efficiently,” he said. “An iPhone sold in the March quarter is more profitable than an iPhone sold in the December quarter.”
 樓主| 發表於 2013-1-15 09:43:13 | 顯示全部樓層

Apple Stock Drops On IPhone 5 Demand Concerns

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE 01/14/13 07:18 PM ET EST, AP


SAN FRANCISCO — Apple's stock slipped below $500 for the first time in 11 months on Monday as investors reacted to reports signaling the company's latest iPhone is falling further behind a slew of sleek alternatives running Google's Android software.

The latest indication that Apple, the world's most valuable company, is seeing sluggish demand for its iPhone 5 emerged in separate stories published Monday in the Japanese newspaper Nikkei and The Wall Street Journal. Both publications cited unnamed people familiar with the situation saying Apple has dramatically reduced its orders for the parts needed to build the newest iPhone because the device isn't selling as well as the company hoped.

The adjustment means Apple will buy about half as many display screens for the iPhone as management originally planned for the opening three months of the year, according to the newspapers.

Apple Inc., which is based in Cupertino, Calif., declined to comment Monday. Spokeswoman Natalie Kerris said Apple executives would share their views on market conditions Jan. 23 when the company is scheduled to release its financial results for the final three months of 2011. The period covers the first full quarter that the iPhone 5 was on sale.

Although Apple hailed the iPhone 5 as the best version yet of a product that has revolutionized the telecommunications and computing industry, the company's stock has wilted since the device hit the market.

After peaking at $705.07 on the day of the iPhone 5's Sept. 21 release, Apple's stock has plunged nearly 30 percent. The shares fell $18.55, or 3.6 percent, to close Monday's regular trading at $501.75, dragging the company's market value nearly $190 billion below where it stood in late September. The stock traded at $498.51 earlier in the day, its lowest price since February.

The stock's decline hasn't been entirely caused by concerns about the iPhone 5's sales performance. Industry analysts are also worried about the recent introduction of a smaller, less expensive iPad cutting into the company's profits.

But the biggest fears hover around the iPhone because it has become Apple's most valuable product since the company's late CEO, Steve Jobs, unveiled the first model in 2007. Apple has sold more than 271 million of the devices since then, and in the company's last fiscal year ending in September, the iPhone generated $80 billion in sales to account for more than half of the company's total revenue.

But Apple's upgrades of the iPhone in the past two years have disappointed gadget lovers who have been clamoring for Apple to do more to stay in front of device makers relying on the free Android software made by Google Inc. For instance, there were high hopes for a larger iPhone screen with the release of the 2011 model, but Apple waited until last September to take that leap. And when Apple moved to a larger display screen with the iPhone 5, it didn't include a special chip to enable users to make mobile payments by tapping the handset on another device at the checkout stand. Such a mobile payment feature is available on some Android phones.

Finally, Apple has insisted that wireless carriers subsidize so much of the iPhone's cost in exchange for customers' two-year commitments on data plans that the carriers make little or no money by selling the devices. That has prompted more wireless carriers to tout less expensive Android phones in their stores, undercutting the demand for iPhones, said Darren Hayes, who has been studying the shifting market conditions as chairman of the computing systems program at Pace University in New York.

Through the third quarter of last year, Android devices represented 75 percent of smartphone shipments worldwide according to the research firm International Data Corp. That was up from 58 percent at the same point 2011. Meanwhile, Apple's share of worldwide smartphone shipments has fallen from a peak of 23 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011 to 15 percent in the third quarter of last year.

Samsung Electronics, in particular, has been benefiting from the growing popularity of its Android-powered phones, led by its Galaxy S line. The company said Monday that it sold more than 100 million Galaxy S phones in less than three years. It took the iPhone nearly four years to reach that milestone.

"This is a real wake-up call for Apple," Hayes said. "They need to be more flexible in how they do things." Among other things, Hayes thinks Apple may have to reduce the financial burden on wireless carriers selling the iPhone and spend more money advertising the devices, especially with the recent wave of phones running on Microsoft Corp.'s Windows software. Apple's efforts to sell more iPhones to companies also could be short-circuited if Research in Motion Ltd.'s upcoming release of a revamped BlackBerry proves to be a hit. The BlackBerry is due out Jan. 30.

In an attempt to regain its competitive edge, Apple already is considering the release of a less expensive version of the iPhone made of cheaper parts to boost sales in less affluent countries, according to a report last week in The Wall Street Journal. The company so far hasn't commented on that speculation, either. The least expensive iPhone 5 without a wireless contract sells for $649. With the subsidy included with a two-year wireless service contract, the iPhone 5 sells for as little as $199.

Even as it loses ground to Android products, the iPhone remains a solid seller. Some analysts believe Apple sold more than 50 million iPhones in its last quarter ending in December, which would be far the most units that the company has ever shipped during any previous three-month period.

What's more, the iPhone 5 got off to a torrid start in China, where Apple expects to eventually sell more devices than it does in the U.S. Apple said it sold more than two million iPhone 5s in the three days after its debut in China last month.
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