The next flagship iPhones will be released this fall, but a new research note from Barclays has just been published, which claims that the new models won’t have much new to offer.
As reported by Chance Miller at 9to5Mac, the Barclays research note says that there is “weakness on iPhone volumes” and lack of bounce back in sales for Macs, wearables and iPads.
The price target for Apple was reduced by $1 from $161 to $160 per share. That’s not much, but it represents 17% less than the $192.53 price the shares were at last Friday
The report said the iPhone 16 series will offer “very little feature/function difference compared to the iPhone 15.”
We’re at that stage in the year where Apple is able to keep most of its software changes tightly under wraps, even as hints about battery size and design leak out.
This means that any software and services changes won’t yet be known and could change significantly between now and the release date.
It’s always a mistake to write Apple off, though it doesn’t stop people from doing so. Barclays writes, “After a two-year period with better than trend upgrade rate, we see 2023 and 2024 as mean reversion years.”
It also said, “AAPL remains a very strong ecosystem, moving from Mac-driven to iPhone-driven over the last decade,” Long wrote. “We believe there is less ecosystem pull-through with new products/services, which will make growth harder over the next several years.”
And here’s a reason why Apple’s sudden decline may have been overstated. In the Financial Times, the latest report says the stock is about to grow again. It points out that the stock fell following the Barclays downgrade, linked to weakness in iPhone 15 demand and concern over regulatory scrutiny. The report concludes, “Both worries should be tempered.”
It goes on to say that while overall smartphone sales fell, the premium market grew and since this is a market Apple dominates, the future may be bright, after all.
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