Americas

Home page

Americas

Apple polishes forecast after selling nine million new iPhones

24 September 2013 00:19 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Apple Inc sold 9 million new iPhones in an opening weekend for the product that included China for the first time and almost doubled sales from the last iPhone launch, and the company issued a more optimistic financial forecast, APA reports quoting Reuters.

Apple shares jumped more than 4.6 percent after the company said revenue in the fiscal fourth quarter would gravitate towards the high end of its previous forecast for $34 billion (21.18 billion pounds) to $37 billion.

Apple, which began selling the top-tier iPhone 5s and cheaper, multi-hued iPhone 5c on Friday, rarely adjusts its outlook in the middle of a quarter. Since CEO Tim Cook took the reins, the world's largest tech company has begun to court Wall Street more visibly.

"The critics have told you Apple lost its magic," said Daniel Ernst, an analyst with Hudson Square Research. "Customers are telling you something very different. Clearly, people like the product. That sentiment is almost more important than the number."

Sales of the new models were nearly double those of the iPhone 5's 5 million in the first weekend after its launch a year ago, and far surpassed the roughly 6 million that analysts had projected.

The record unit sales and beefed-up forecast reinforced expectations of strong demand for Apples latest gadgets. Critics had said the iPhone 5c was priced too high to take advantage of pent-up demand in emerging markets.

Apple, which had grown notorious for providing conservative estimates that it routinely overshot, had resolved to improve its guidance for investors. Analysts have said the change will help rein in some over-the-top financial expectations.

The forecast for Apple's latest iPhone launch proved trickier than in the past for analysts, because the company introduced two models simultaneously in 11 countries including the crucial Chinese market. Apple launched iPhone 5 in just nine countries.

Another factor was that this time around, Apple signed on NTT Docomo, Japan's largest mobile carrier.

China joined the rollout that included Hong Kong, Singapore, the United States, Australia, Japan, Britain, Canada, Germany, France and Puerto Rico. Previously, Apple began selling phones in China only months after the global launch.

"We underscore one important caveat for investors: Apple's iPhone seasonality is likely to be exaggerated this cycle because of the addition of NTT DoCoMo, and particularly because of the early launch in China," said Bernstein Research's Toni Sacconaghi, who has an "outperform" rating on Apple.

"Although upside exists for the September and December quarters, the risk exists that the fall-off in iPhone sales beginning in the March quarter could be more acute than history, potentially resulting in some downside to estimates."