All of a sudden, they're hotcakes; analyst sees 15 million Apple iPhone SE units rung up in 2016

It's amazing how fast things change in this industry. On Monday, we were passing along news about "lackluster" opening weekend sales of the Apple iPhone SE. And that information came from a number of sources including connected Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities. But yesterday, the narrative changed. All of a sudden, the 16GB iPhone SE was listed on Apple's online store with a delay of about a week until it would ship. And the 64GB model had nearly a two-week delay before shipping, and that was after paying $10 for an expedited delivery date. Some are complaining that the iPhone SE can't be found on carriers' shelves.

Today, analyst Amit Daryanani of RBC Capital Markets sent out a report to clients stating that with the new 4-inch iPhone hard to find, demand for the phone is outpacing supply. Daryanani expects 15 million iPhone SE units to be sold this year, bringing the number of 4-inch iPhones rung up in 2016 to 40 million. The analyst says that Apple will achieve profit margins of 35% on the iPhone SE, about 10 percentage points less than Apple's margin on the Apple iPhone 6s and Apple iPhone 5s.

With an average selling price of $450 for the iPhone SE (16GB model is $399, 64GB model is priced at $499), Daryanani sees the phone garnering $6.8 billion in revenue for 2016, adding 23 cents a share in earnings. With 5.55 billion shares outstanding at the beginning of the year, that would work out to profits this year of approximately $1.28 billion just for the iPhone SE. Not bad for a phone that analysts were giving up on just four days ago.


source: AppleInsider