Apple Stock Price Falls Most in 17 Months, Some Suggest Weak Demand for iPhone 8 (Sep 22, 2017)
This Financial Times piece seems like as good a hook as any to round up the week’s Apple news and to talk about perceptions of weak demand for the iPhone 8. The FT points out that Apple’s stock has had its worst week in 17 months, falling over 5%, as a result of some mixed reviews of its new products and perceived weak demand for new iPhones. As I said earlier in the week, the Apple Watch LTE reviews were particularly problematic, but I think much of the rest of the worry this week is overblown. It has been clear that overall demand for the iPhone 8 during the preorder period and in today’s first day on sale has been a little weak, but it’s also been clear that Apple has still sold out its first week or two of preorder inventory and that there were still lines in major stores despite the years-long decline in retail sales on the first day given the success of online pre-sales. From a financial perspective, all that really matters is that Apple sells a few more iPhones in the first ten days or so than it did last year, and that it has a strong December quarter, which will combine ongoing sales of the iPhone 8 line and the iPhone X line from about a month into the quarter onwards. It certainly seems to be the case that iPhone X interest has dampened early iPhone 8 sales somewhat, but as long as Apple has the X in decent supply in November and December, that needn’t be a problem, and it’s certainly not the case that the iPhone 8 isn’t selling at all. As such, I think Apple will be fine even if overall demand for the 8 line isn’t as strong as for the 7 line last year, but the big wrinkle will be supply of iPhone X models. If those are very constrained throughout the December quarter, that will be a bit more problematic.
via Financial Times
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