iPhone 6 Availability: Supplies Improve, But Not Enough
It looks like Apple is having a tougher time than usual in meeting demand for its new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus smartphones. A new report from Piper Jaffray Gene Munster reveals that supplies of iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus are up, but still behind consumer demand.
Munster had initially estimated that Apple would be able to meet 100 percent of the demand for the new iPhones before the end of the year, but has now revised his projections.
"We now expect it to be closer to 80 percent by the end of the quarter," Munster said in the investor's report (via Apple Insider).
The Piper Jaffray data indicates that 56 percent of core configurations were in stock as of Friday, Dec. 12. While this is an increase from single digits in October, it's actually less than the amount found in mid-November.
"Still, the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus availability found by Piper Jaffray is actually a decrease from last month, when Munster's survey of 80 Apple Stores found that 58 percent of models were in-stock on Nov. 14," Munster writes. "Supply is, however, up considerably from the 6 percent availability tracked in mid-October."
Piper Jaffray data also shows that ship times in most major markets have now decreased to between three and five business days, a marked improvement from when the new iPhones first released in September.
Supply concerns have lingered even three months after the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus releases. A surge in demand for high-capacity models seems have been part of the reason. Consumers now look towards models with more internal memory (the 64GB and 128GB models in the cases of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus) thanks to the increasing amount of photos, updates, apps and other goodies that tend to fill up a smartphone pretty fast.
The supply constraints, however annoying they may be for the consumer, might be a little bit of a boost for Apple. In a note to investors earlier this month, Canaccord Genuity managing director and analyst T. Michael Walkley revised his target price on Apple's stock upwards to $135 thanks in part to the lack of Apple's ability to keep up with demand, especially concerning the 64GB and 128GB iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus models. Apple stock closed Monday at a little under $110.
"We believe Apple will continue to garner the majority share of handset industry profits and maintain and even grow its share of high-end smartphone market with the new larger screen SKUs continuing to sell well," Walkley wrote.
"In fact, based on our analysis, we believe Apple dominated the handset industry operating profits and captured a remarkable 86% of (third-quarter) 2014 handset industry profits and should grow its share of industry profits during Q4/2014."
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