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(CNN) – Apple’s quarterly earnings announcement Thursday afternoon will look different from previous years: The report will not include the new iPhone 12, Apple’s highly anticipated first 5G smartphone.
Typically, September quarter results include the first few days of sales of the newer iPhone. Last year, the iPhone 11 hit stores on September 20, 10 days before the end of the quarter. That meant that the quarterly sales figures for September provided a preview, albeit relatively small, of strong demand for the new device immediately after launch. (IPhone sales during that quarter fell 9%, a narrower rate of decline than in previous quarters, in line with analysts’ expectations of strong early iPhone 11 demand.)
This year, however, the launch of the iPhone 12 was delayed for several weeks due to the pandemic. Pre-orders for the iPhone 12 began on October 16 and landed in stores on October 23, meaning the first official look at how it’s selling won’t come until Apple reports earnings for the current quarter, which spans until December. It may also mean that comparing sales figures in the September quarter of this year, which marks the fourth quarter of Apple’s fiscal year, with the same period last year will be tricky.
“There will be no apples to apples with a typical September quarter with no iPhone launch until October,” Wedbush analyst Dan Ives told CNN Business.
Investor interest in the performance of the iPhone 12 is likely to be especially high this year, given expectations that the device could be a revolutionary product that powers a “supercycle” of updates.
For this reason, investors and analysts will be closely monitoring the company’s guidance for the current quarter and any potential insights Apple executives provide during Tuesday’s earnings call on iPhone 12 pre-orders and pre-sales.
“Fiscal 4Q earnings will lack visibility into the new iPhone 12 demand that we’ve had in the past, but I expect the guidance to provide some initial color,” said Geoff Blaber, CCS Insight vice president of research for America. “Guidance will be analyzed more closely than fourth quarter earnings.”
Although the first sales of the iPhone 12 will not be included in Thursday’s quarterly revenue report, analysts have indicated that initial demand for the new smartphone is strong.
Aggressive discount offerings from carriers are likely to help increase orders for the iPhone 12, especially amid the challenging economic environment caused by the pandemic, Dan Morgan, senior portfolio manager at Synovus Trust Company, said in a note to investors. investors earlier this year. week. Morgan said it expects to see 75 million iPhone 12 unit sales during the current quarter.
Wedbush’s Ives said he also expects Apple CEO Tim Cook to provide insight into iPhone 12 pre-order demand in recent weeks. Ives currently projects around 80 million iPhone 12 unit sales during the current quarter, with demand especially strong for the larger 6.7-inch model, based on his company’s supply chain controls in Asia.
Demand for the iPhone 12 “so far is following more than double that of its predecessor iPhone 11, a bullish signal coming out the door,” Ives said, according to his analysis.
Still, the company’s report for the quarter ending in September should provide investors with an update on whether the pandemic has continued to drive higher demand for the tech giant’s products and services.
Wall Street analysts are expecting earnings per share of $ 0.70 on revenue of $ 63.7 billion. That number of sales would mark a slight decline from the $ 64 billion in revenue Apple posted during the same period last year, a departure from the revenue growth the company posted during the first three quarters of 2020.
This story was first published on CNN.com, “Something Big Will Be Missing from Apple’s Earnings Tonight.”
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