Apple Stock News
Apple appears to be poised for a record holiday quarter. iPhone X production is improving. Three million units are currently being produced each week, but that could increase to four million units in December. According to Rosenblatt Securities analyst Jun Zhang, Apple may have sold six million iPhone X units over the Black Friday weekend which would be an amazing feat.
Zhang is also saying that most consumers are buying the 256 GB model which carries a higher price tag. He believes that Apple is selling twice as many 256 GB units as 64 GB units. This would be fantastic news for Apple’s earnings and profit margin. The 256 GB product costs $1,149 while the 64 GB product costs $999. Overall, Apple may have sold 15 million iPhone X units since it went on sale. Apple could end up selling 30 million iPhone X units during the current holiday quarter and 40 million units during the next quarter.
Consequently, Rosenblatt Securities’ December quarter iPhone X shipment estimates increased from 27-28 million to 30 million units. However, due to the belief that normal seasonality will kick in after the inventory build, the March quarter iPhone X estimates decreased from 45 million to 40 million units. The main takeaway is the holiday quarter should be exceptional, but then sales should pullback a bit as seen by the net decrease in sales estimates of 2-3 million iPhone X units sold for the next two quarters.
In Other News
Apple filed a countersuit against Qualcomm alleging that it is infringing on at least eight patents related to battery life. The countersuit is in response to Qualcomm’s patent infringement suit filed in July relating to six of its own patents. Apple is reportedly seeking unspecified damages in order to add pressure to settle the suit. However, that doesn’t look like it’s going to happen soon. The tech giant, meanwhile, appears to be accelerating its shift toward Intel modems in response.
Apple also recently revealed a new self-driving car system that can detect pedestrians, cyclists, and other 3D objects. Apple’s ambition in this space has shifted from building their own self-driving cars to building the software that helps power them. Company researchers claim the new system “outperforms the state-of-the-art detection methods by a large margin.” However, the research is still in an early phase.
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