Apple is due to report its third financial quarter result today, with some analysts predicting a slowdown in sales of the iPhone – its top-selling product – as would-be buyers hang off, waiting for an expected new model, due in coming weeks or months.Such a report could see Apple’s share price slide from current levels – indeed in early trading overnight, as prices slid across the board, Apple was down US$13 to $591.
However other analysts suggest it would be unwise to expect a major decline: iPhone slowdown or no iPhone slowdown, Apple is still likely to report figures that its rivals would kill for.
The company is expected to report profit in the quarter grew 35 percent to $9.86 billion, according to the average of analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg, with revenue expected to soar 31 percent to $37.3 billion.
And while major rival Samsung now claims to be the world’s No 1 smartphone maker, the iPhone remains easily the top-selling model. Samsung yesterday reported its Galaxy S III smartphone, launched in late May, had sold 10 million units by the end of July. While impressive, it compares with sales of 72 million iPhones between October 2011 and March 2012.
Apple is due to report after the close of trading Tuesday US time – ie, around breakfast time Wednesday, AEST.
In Taipei, newswire DigiTimes claims production of the new iPhone, with a 4-inch Retina display, is already under way at the Shanghai factory of Pegatron, one of the two suppliers of the current model, along with Foxconn.
