It has only been about a month or so since Apple released the iPhone 7. The company may not have revealed the first-weekend sales figures this year but it’s fair to say that sales met the company’s as well as everybody else’s expectations. Infamous KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo predicts that iPhone 7 demand has now actually “peaked” and that we’re going to see a significant decline in demand for the iPhone 7 over the next two months.
Kuo has predicted that iPhone 7 demand is going to decline significantly starting this month and that it’s going to continue in the month of December as well.
The analyst has also predicted that Apple’s overseas suppliers are going to revise their iPhone shipments down by 5-15 percent in November and December due to weaker demand as customers decide to hold off on the purchase because the iPhone 7 lacks significant improvements.
“We think iPhone shipment forecasts will be revised down due to: (1) lower-than-expected demand due to a lack of spec surprises in the 4.7-inch iPhone 7; and (2) shorter times for delivering online orders of 5.5-inch iPhone 7 Plus, which implies slowing demand,” Kuo wrote in a note to investors.
The analyst does not that the out-of-stock phenomenon following the launch of a new iPhone also results from fixed capacity so it’s not necessarily indicative of high demand. Kuo has reiterated his earlier prediction of a possible year-over-year decline in iPhone shipments in the first quarter of 2017.