The Strange Math of Apple's Alleged Massive iPhone 5 Order Cuts 298
zacharye writes "The Sunday evening Wall Street Journal article claiming that Apple had cut its iPhone 5 display orders drastically for the March quarter made quite a splash. The way WSJ wrote its piece seemed to support the original Nikkei claim about Apple cutting its iPhone 5 display orders in half from the originally planned order of 65 million units. This would be a massive adjustment. But Apple uses the same new display type for both iPhone 5 and the latest iPod touch. Neither WSJ nor Nikkei addressed this, however — both seemed to be referring to just iPhone 5 displays. The math just doesn't add up."
Market manipulation? (Score:5, Insightful)
Someone is getting rich out of this
Re:so? apple is still selling less product (Score:4, Insightful)
Unfortunately most of the time these cost cuts are not based on R&D to invent a new method to decrease costs of production or increase the efficiency; which would take time and also uncertain. Remember high-earning managers don't like to wait (their time is money), and their stress level can't endure uncertainty of that level and they go the easiest way of cost-cutting; which is called mass lay off. They know human can increase their efficiency automatically when they are afraid of something, for this case losing their jobs (not steve). They know remaining workers will work twice to secure their places, instead of criticising the bad management etc. And exploit this fact every now and then.
Re:Market manipulation? (Score:5, Insightful)
That's an interesting read. Perhaps they've spotted a pattern. This story is very similar one that was reported last year regarding the 4S
http://www.forbes.com/sites/ericsavitz/2011/11/09/apple-reportedly-tells-iphone-parts-makers-to-delay-shipments/ [forbes.com]
I wonder what we'll see this time next year.
Apple (Score:5, Insightful)
Apple has serious competition now. Back when they were the only game in town they could do as they pleased.
But fat margins and high market share rarely last. And when margins and market share come down so does the stock.
A company whose primary product is a smart phone has the highest market capitalization in history? That smacks of Tulips [wikipedia.org]. You know it can't last.
Re:so? apple is still selling less product (Score:5, Insightful)
iPhones are so cheap? Are you insane?
iPhone 5 is what, around $200 with a 2-years contract in the USA? But these monthly fees are likely to be around $50 or more, so $200+(24x$50)=$1400 at the least.
iPod touch 5th generation is $300. That's less than a quarter of the cost. There's free wi-fi everywhere in NYC so iPod touch + VoIP = free calls.
And if people are too stupid to include their monthly fees in the cost of their iPhone, too bad. You can't fix stupid.
Re:Market manipulation? (Score:4, Insightful)
Then why have they changed the story several times since last night?
Including removing the 65M number.
Re:Market manipulation? (Score:5, Insightful)
Having worked in a newsroom and posted news stories online, I'll state that no good ones do.
Sign of the times (Score:4, Insightful)
I've said before that the world's love affair with Apple is slowly eroding, and so it seems iPhone 5 orders are not quite what Apple was expecting. 2013 is going to be a very tough year for Apple and coming out with cheap iPhone mini's or doing minor revamps of existing products are not going to cut it. Unless Apple does something truly innovative with iOS and iPhone in general, this slow erosion of their market will pick up speed.
Cutting back screen orders because they want to introduce a new product does not make any sense, why place an order so large in the first place? Is Apple so completely out of touch they don't even have a firm release cycle for future products when they ship a new product? Like they didn't know the 5S release cycle when they shipped the iPhone 5? I would be dumping Apple stock if this is their emerging trend, release a product with ridiculous expectations on sales, cross their fingers, and when the sales don't reach their inflated estimates dump the product and rush a new version to market???
Nothing about this speaks of a company that is being run properly.
Re:so? apple is still selling less product (Score:4, Insightful)
I'd love to experience the genius of Google's latest Nexus phone, if only they had enough sense to manage their stock and have one for me to buy.
Re:Market manipulation? (Score:5, Insightful)
There also hasn't been a successful jailbreak of iOS 6 on any device newer than 2010.
Personally, I don't find that to be a selling point.
Re:Market manipulation? (Score:5, Insightful)
Ditto, I like having control of my hardware, TYVM.
Re:Market manipulation? (Score:2, Insightful)
You having control is good. The problem is when someone else gets to control your smartphone.
Re:so? apple is still selling less product (Score:4, Insightful)