[NEWS.AU] AFTER a year of big Apple releases, analysts are predicting a flat 2016 where the world's biggest tech company refines product lines rather than produces the next big thing.Apple's share price has taken a battering in the past six months, with more than $220 billion slashed from the company's value as analysts look towards an era of smartphone saturation.
Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty recently predicted that 2016 would be first time that iPhone sales would shrink, dropping by up to three per cent.
Given the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus sold 13 million in their opening weekend, a jump from the 10 million sales for the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus the previous year, a decline of that scale would be a massive turnaround. However the Morgan Stanley grim forecast was matched by other analysts, including Pacific Crest and KGI Securities.
| Snicker. Guffaw. Oh, it is to laugh, and I do. Chuckle. Snort. In April Apple will release Watch2. In September Apple will release iPhone7. In November it will release iPadPro2. If Apple does nothing else -- absolutely nothing else -- those three events alone will drive sales higher in 2016. In the last 15 years Apple has had four new major hardware ideas that opened up new computer worlds: iPod, iPhone, iPad, and Watch. That's three more original ideas than Microsoft, Samsung, Sony and Google combined have had. Apple might hit another home run in 2016, but even if it doesn't, it will be just fine. And that's just counting hardware. Care to talk about software? There's a segment of the press out there that hates Apple. It has similarities to the segment of the press that hates conservatives and American culture. Once you understand that you understand articles like this one. |