The holiday season is always good for Apple, and this year is no exception. Along with the iPhone X’s possible record pre-orders and better-than-initially-thought iPhone 8 and 8 Plus sales, Apple’s suppliers are also enthused by rising sales for Apple’s AirPods and Apple Watches.
According to sources in Apple’s upstream supply chain, demand for both products has increased and Apple is placing more orders to match.
There are no exact figures given in the report, but Apple suppliers Quanta Computer, Inventec, Universal Scientific Industrial (USI) and Foxconn group’s Shunsin Technology and Luxshare-ICT are supposedly all expecting “strong growth” and “significant revenue contribution” from the new orders.
The report also states that ShunSin Technology Holdings Limited, a semiconductor manufacturer which started life in 2008, is joining the Apple Watch’s supply chain. Quanta and USI have both been working with Apple on the Apple Watch for some time, but ShunSin is a new member of the team. It will begin processing orders from Apple in either February or March next year.
Two big hits for Apple
While Apple has yet to release Apple Watch sales numbers, according to Asymco analyst Horace Dediu, Apple has likely sold around 15 million Watches in the past 12 months at an average price of around $330. Added up, that makes the Apple Watch revenue run rate around $4.9 billion.
The recently released Apple Watch Series 3 added a greater level of independence from the iPhone, which should help it grow its audience even more, now that it is no longer considered solely an iPhone accessory.
Apple’s AirPods, meanwhile, have been consistently popular with customers, although only now has supply started to measure up to demand. In most countries, the wait has been reduced to just two to three weeks when ordering from the Apple online store, which is the lowest it has been since the earphones made their debut back in December.
Are you planning to purchase AirPods or an Apple Watch this holiday quarter? Leave your comments below.
Source: Digitimes
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
2 responses to “Apple Watch and AirPods set to be big holiday hits”
I Have the AirPods, just waiting for my Space Grey 42mm LTE Watch to arrive in two weeks, which will replace my Series 0 watch.
It is still considered an iPhone accessory considering you need an iPhone to use it. You also need to use the same carrier for the watch as iPhone. And you only get one hour of talk time on LTE so…. still an accessory.