Apple Device Sales: Analyst Says Blame Industry, Not Apple

Published on April 19, 2013 at 10:56 am by Chris Bibey in News

Apple Device Sales: It can be disappointing for any company, as well as investors, to find that growth has slowed. This is always the case with sales of the Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhone.

Apple Inc (AAPL) Although many jump on the first chance to point out a problem with Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) device sales, this is not always fair. After all, there are times when an entire industry faces a slow down.

According to a note to investors, sent by Wells Fargo Securities analyst Maynard Um, this may be the case in the smartphone industry right now.

AppleInsider took a closer look at his note, adding that “slowing smartphone sales are not Apple-specific. He noted that iPhone activations at Verizon were up 25 percent year over year, while other smartphones grew just 3 percent.”

Let’s take a closer look at what is going on at Verizon for example. Yesterday, we published this piece: Apple Inc. (AAPL): Should This Mobile Carrier Thank It for Strong Sales in Q1?

In this article, we discussed the fact that out of 7.2 million phones activated on the network in the first quarter, four million were Apple iPhones.

At Verizon, during the first quarter, overall smartphone activations were up 14 percent. While this may sound like a lot, it is actually down from a 27 percent year over year growth in the previous quarter.

Um added the following:

“With Nokia and BlackBerry smartphone units also lower than most anticipated, and combined with Verizon’s upgrade data point, we believe the industry may have seen a slowing in (the first quarter of 2013).”

Just because Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and its iPhone is a top performer does not mean it is responsible for everything that happens within the industry as a whole.

Although a slowdown may have been the case in quarter one, it is important to note that Um does not see this lasting a very long time. Instead, he believes that sales will pick back up in the second half of 2013, which could be driven in large part by new devices such as the next generation iPhone.

Here is one last note from the article:

“Um’s forecast calls for Apple to have sold 38.7 million iPhones in the March quarter, but if Verizon accounted for 11.1 percent of total sales, it implies Apple could have sold 36 million iPhones.”

For one reason or the next, many people tie the entire smartphone industry to the performance of the Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhone. While this comes along with the territory of being top dog, it is not always fair.

Check out the video on the next page for a sneak peak of what to expect in the next generation iPhone: