October 2013 – Argus Insights, Inc.

October 2013

Consumers Bored of Apple’s Lack of Novel Pie: Apple Q4 iPhone Sales Estimated To Fall Below Wall Street Concensus

Apple is going to have a down quarter. There, we said it. We have been agonizing over the data and analysis for weeks, double checking assumptions, sources, etc. We’ve even included for the first time Chinese consumer data to craft a broader picture of iPhone adoption. Apple is starting to lose the battle for hearts and minds.

Apple Q4 iPhone Sales Estimate Based Solely on Social Media Analytics

This was the softest launch for Apple in years. The 5C was a a global bust. We recently started bringing in some data from Chinese consumers and was surprised to find that the buzz around the 5S was over 35 times higher than the 5C. Surprisingly we did not see the iPhone 5 demand jump the way the iPhone 4S did after the iPhone 5 launch. Overall buzz for Apple is falling everywhere but China. This does not bode well for the next year and opens Apple to disruption by other competitors…

See our full press release at PRWeb.

Consumers Don’t Like Dem Apples: Apple Cuts iPhone 5C Orders

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Apple is cutting iPhone 5C Orders. Makes sense. Our analysis of global consumer demand is finding that the 5C is not only one of the worst smartphone launches this year but the worst in Apple’s history.

iPhone 5C continues to lag, both in buzz and delight.

We’ve recently added Chinese consumer responses into our growing global dataset and the 5C is also underperforming in those markets with iPhone 5S buzz registering over 35 times more than 5C buzz. The lackluster performance of the 5C in both volume of engagement and lack of delighted consumers puts the iPhone 5C in the dreaded Argus Insights category of “Why did you bother launching this product” along with the HTC First or Facebook Phone.

Stay tuned. In the next few days Argus Insights will release our updated estimate of Apple’s Q4 iPhone sales. Suffice to say, it is not flattering and bucks Wall Street’s bullish estimates. Argus is estimating iPhone sales to be flat from last quarter or down to potentially just 27 million units based on the picture we’re seeing from consumers. More details in a special report later this week!