Apple hasn’t announced how many iPhone 7 handsets it’s sold yet, but the head of iPhone manufacturer Pegatron is decrying reports of disappointing sales by saying that he is “cautiously optimistic” about how the next-gen smartphone is doing.
“Consumers do not care about what analysts say about the lack of innovative features,” Pegatron chairman Tung Tzu-hsien said — referring to the various reports suggesting that the iPhone 7 hasn’t got enough going in its favor to win over customers on the fence.
On Friday, German market research firm GfK claimed that there has been a 25 percent drop in iPhone sales outside the U.S., compared to sales of the iPhone 6s. Analysts in Taipei have meanwhile suggested that Apple is likely to ship between 201-204 million handsets this year, compared to 230 million last year.
Pegatron is one of two main manufacturers of the iPhone 7, which puts Tung Tzu-hsien’s among the more respectable supply chain sources to speak out about the handset. One previous report, citing a different source in the supply chain, suggested that Apple had upped its orders for the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus by an impressive 10 percent.
T-Mobile CEO John Legere has also said that the iPhone 7 is, “like four times bigger than the iPhone 6 for us at this order stage,” and calling it a sales “phenomenon.”
With all that being the case, however, the fact remains that this is the first year in iPhone history where we haven’t had early sales figures announced by Apple.
Other reports are meanwhile unclear, such as the one noting increased orders — which doesn’t make it apparent whether this is 10 percent more iPhones than Apple ordered last year, or 10 percent more than the decreased orders Apple reportedly placed for its 2016 handset refresh.
Pegatron chairman Tung Tzu-hsien did make one interesting observation, though, by arguing that the embarrassing recall of Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7 may not have quite such a significant impact on iPhone 7 sales as some are predicting.
“The Note series only takes up a small portion of Samsung’s total shipments,” he noted. “Our U.S. client’s new handsets are competing against Samsung’s S7 series rather than the Note 7.”
Are you expecting the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus to disappoint in terms of sales? (This, of course, is measured against Apple’s own standards, since disappointing sales for Apple would still blow away sales for virtually any other company.) Leave your comments below.
Source: Nikkei
