Recent reports reveal that Apple consumers are favouring cheaper iPhone models, in lieu of the recently released $1,579 iPhone X.
The news comes as global wait times for Apple’s tenth anniversary smartphones have shortened. In the United States wait times have reportedly dropped to a few days, from the 5 – 6 weeks that was typical following release.
Cowen and Co. analyst Karl Ackerman has expressed his concern that demand may be lower than expected:
“Some investors may conclude this relates to better sales momentum for the X, but we are increasingly concerned that demand has been below initial expectations as users appear to have gravitated toward the previous iPhone models”.
Ackerman predicts that Apple will likely sell about 79 million iPhones (in all models) in the three months to December, which is a marginal increase over the 78 million units sold in the same period last year.
In the following three months, he forecasts that consumers will buy 56 million iPhones – well below 2015’s figure of 61 million in the same period.
