Apple Stock News
Apple is expected to unveil the new 4-inch iPhone, that is rumored to be called the iPhone SE during their March 21st event. The smaller phone will be expected to replace the iPhone 5 with the updated A9 and M9 chips that can be found in the iPhone 6 and 6 plus. The new phone will come with features such as the ability to support Apple Pay, Hey Siri, Live Photos and an upgraded 8-megapixel camera.
As iPhone sales have been slowing, and investors have been worrying that Apple is losing share of the smartphone market, Apple shares have been declining. Research firm IDC says that Apple’s market share is down from 19.7% at the end of the fourth quarter in 2014 to 18.7% at the end of the fourth quarter that just ended. Jan Dawson of Jackdaw Research believes that the new 4-inch phone could help with sales, Chris Ciaccia from The Street believes that if positioned correctly India would be a major market for the new phone.
KGI Securities analyst, Ming-Chi Kuo expects the new phone to be priced between $400 and $500, which is in line with the price of the 5s, and well below the price of the iPhone 6, which starts at $649. The low price iPhone could be a strategy to boost sales in the emerging markets, especially India, which is the second largest smartphone market in the world, with a user base of 220 million at the end of 2015, a figure that has increased by 15%. Apple CEO Tim Cook referred to India in a 4th quarter conference call by saying “It’s a very rapidly expanding country, I think the government there is very interested in economic reforms and so forth that I think all speak to a really good business environment for the future.” Apple’s total revenue in India has grown by 38% year-over-year and has experienced iPhone sales growth of 76% year-over-year.
