Apple's giant week: Can they really sell 32 million extra phones in China?
The headline in Apple's local paper, the San Jose Mercury News, this weekend seemed to say it all: "Has Apple lost its Mojo?"
iPhone bonanza ahead in China?
A typical quote from an interviewee; "The wow-factor is wearing off at Apple."
Some welcome to a week that in my view could see Apple rocketing ahead to its biggest achievements ever!
Tomorrow an Apple launch in California is expected to see new iPhones jazz up the world scene A six-inch iPhone( possible) and a cheaper iPhone in different colours (probable), aimed at the Chinese market, are two of the likely debuts. Plus a new wearable Apple watch which some think will be as big as the iPod all those years ago.
But it is the Chinese connection which may make the Jeremiahs eat their words.
Apple is poised to do a gigantic deal with China's biggest phone supplier.
The deal is likely to be with China's largest wireless carrier, China Mobile, that has 700 million subscribers, seven times the size of the largest carrier Verizon in the US.
China Mobile is one of the world's last major operators that doesn't carry iPhones, so the deal could be a great boost for Apple.
One major clue: Apple has asked Foxconn, its contract manufacturing partner, to add China Mobile to the list of carriers slated to receive the new low-cost iPhone, the Wall Street Journal is reporting.
Apple sales in Greater China have been down largely due to the iPhone's high price and this deal could go a long way to fixing that. In the June quarter, Apple's China market share fell to 5 per cent, ranking it seventh behind market leader Samsung, which had 18 per cent.
In the belief that many potential first-time smartphone buyers are there, Apple is doubling the 11 stores it has in China .
Smartphone shipments in China are estimated to rise 84 per cent to 352 million units this year, or more than double that of the US, before increasing to 421 million units in 2015, according to research firm Canalys, cited by the WSJ.
Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty in a research report last month estimated that a cheaper iPhone could increase Apple's China market share by 13 per cent through the sale of an additional 20 million iPhones. Those suffering could be Samsung, HTC and Lenovo.
Strikingly Huberty wrote that a deal with China Mobile, could raise that sales leap to 32 million units, or about a quarter of the 125 million iPhones sold globally in the past fiscal year.
Carl Icahn boosted Apple's share price last month with a $1bn investment, commenting that the shares are undervalued. I'm with Mr Icahn.