According to a new report from Oppenheimer analyst Ittai Kidron, and reported by CNET, the iPhone 5 isn't doing as well as its predecessors in terms of sales and demand.
In a note to investors that came out on Tuesday, Kidron discussed some retail checks that indicate a steady demand for the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4s. Meanwhile, the iPhone 5's demand is anything but steady. While the demand isn't necessarily bad, it isn't holding as strong as its predecessors, which Kidron believes is cause for concern on the part of investors. Analysts predict this trend will continue. He said iPhone sales are likely to fall 26 million for the current quarter, which is down from 27 million in his original projection earlier this quarter.
Kidron isn't the only one worried about Apple's mobile market future. After MacRumors posted photos to their website Thursday claiming they were leaked images of the iPhone 5s, expected to debut in September, the specs revealed by them were underwhelming. If Apple plans to get the iPhone 5 product out of its demand slump, it will need some serious innovation the iPhone 5s does not look like it will have.
Kidron takes his analysis a step further and predicts a September release will be too late to bring the iPhone out of its current slump for this quarter.
"Our previous estimates also reflected a nearly full September quarter contribution from a new iPhone, which looks overly optimistic at this point," Kidron said. "We still feel a September month launch and QoQ [quarter on quarter] volume increase are possible, but with our checks already showing signs of delayed iPhone 5 purchases, there's still risk to our lowered estimate [of 29 million in iPhone sales]."
As for some of the other innovations expected to help Apple's demand increase, namely a big-screen iPhone, an iWatch or Apple Television (iTV), these don't look like they'll be anywhere close to ready for a September release, meaning that if the underwhelming iPhone 5s images are true, the company will have nothing to bring itself up coming out until these devices are ready. This could prove problematic for the brand.
