Regarding Supplier Rumors of iPhone Demand

Lots of news today about reports from suppliers that Apple has reduced orders for the 5C and increased orders for the 5S. The only sensible conclusion I’ve read regarding this was buried at the bottom of Reuters’s report:

Some analysts caution against correlating the cuts to Apple’s supplier orders with poor sales, because of the complexity and opacity of the company’s supply chain.

“We’ve seen this several times. There are too many moving parts in the supply chain to draw any conclusions,” said Benedict Evans, who covers mobile and digital media at Enders Analysis, a research consultancy in London.

“We don’t know what other suppliers they use or what inventory they already have.”

Or whether it’s as simple as yields being higher than expected. Tim Cook warned against reading into these rumors from Apple’s supply chain early this year, in the face of then-rampant rumors of decreased demand for the iPhone 5. And indeed, iPhone 5 sales were just fine in the two quarters following these supply-chain-rumor predictions of slower sales.

★ Wednesday, 16 October 2013