‘Tis the season to run around in a fruitless battle to find AirPods in time for the holidays, notes Wedbush analyst Dan Ives in a message to clients.
Ives thinks that a surge of demand means there will be a shortage of AirPods headphones this holiday season. In total, he thinks Apple could ship a total of 65 million AirPods in 2019 — and things will only ramp up in 2020.
“While AirPods today are on a trajectory to represent ~4%+ of overall revenues, this product category continues to speak to the unparalleled flywheel,” Ives wrote. He credits the massive-sized hit on Apple’s customer base, consisting of 900 million+ iPhones.
Ives predicts that the new, noise-cancelling AirPods Pro will be a “clear star of Black Friday and the holiday season.” Next year, he thinks AirPods shipments could well reach 85-90 million units.
Wedbush currently has an outperform rating on Apple and a $325 price target. Shares rose 1.3% on Wednesday to hit $267.84.
AirPods for the holidays
Ives isn’t exactly going out on a limb predicting that the AirPods will be a massive hit. Apple doesn’t reveal unit sales of the AirPods. Nonetheless, Apple’s wearables division grew 54% over the last reported quarter. Yesterday, I wrote about a report claiming that Apple has doubled its monthly AirPods Pro production from 1 million to 2 million units per month.
A recent study found that AirPods are at the top of US teens’ wish lists. Interest expressed through Google searches has also increased 500% versus this time last year. Shipping times on Apple.com currently suggest that people ordering now likely won’t receive their earbuds until after Christmas. While other retailers have them in stock, if you’re planning to buy a pair I’d suggest you move as soon as possible.
You can check out our review of the AirPods Pro here. The TL;DR version: They’re really awesome.
Have you bought a pair of AirPods this year? Are you planning to get them for someone (or, gasp, even yourself) this holidays? Let us know in the comments below.
Source: CNBC
