iPhone 14 Pro Shipments May Fall 20 Million Units Below Estimates: Kuo
Apple 14 Pro and Pro Max model shipments may miss market expectations by as much as 20 million units in the holiday quarter due to labor unrest at a major Chinese factory, TF Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said.
Kuo is the latest to sound the alarm at the world’s most important company since protests over pay and strict COVID-19 restrictions at the world’s largest iPhone factory, a Foxconn-operated plant in the city center of Zhengzhou.
He lowered his estimate of iPhone shipments for the quarter by about 20 percent to between 70 million and 75 million, compared to the market consensus of 80 to 85 million units.
Shares of Apple, which were trading up more than 2 percent, will add to a 6 percent drop so far this month as concerns grow about shipments in the all-important holiday sales period.
Kuo, kuo a blog post On Tuesday, it also predicted that supply shortages could wipe out demand for the popular Pro models, rather than hold back sales, as buyers grapple with a weak economy.
Conversely, some Apple analysts expect sales to pick up once production bottlenecks ease and more Pro models become available.
“We note that the Pro devices were sold in early January, but we expect some of the missed revenue to come in during the March quarter,” CFRA Research analyst Angelo Zino said Monday.
The restrictions come at a very bad time and are the worst since the early days of the epidemic, Zino said.
Some analysts have indicated that the challenges may extend into 2023.
“I don’t think 2023 will be a strong year for Apple iPhones,” said Zeno Mercer, a research analyst at investment advisory firm ROBO Global.
“Those who want to upgrade have it, and disposable income for next-generation phones should be low.”
© Thomson Reuters 2022
