By Yasin Ebrahim
Investing.com – Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) wrapped its first product event Tuesday with a number of announcements including a new budget iPhone that some bet will drive new user adoption, boosting sales by 30 million units from launch.
Apple is hoping that is better that the new budget iPhone can spur a supercycle of iPhone sales just like the iPhone 12 SE did in 2020. The iPhone 12 lineup achieved 100 million sales within seven months of its launch.
“This past fall we've added more new users to the iPhone 13 line-up than in each of the previous five launches and we're excited for the iPhone SE to build on this momentum,” Apple chief executive Tim Cook said Tuesday.
Some on Wall Street also share the tech giant’s confidence that the launch of the budget iPhone - equipped with 5G and Apple's latest A15 bionic chip - will prove difficult for consumers to pass up.
“Overall, with the A15 chip this smartphone will be the fastest and most powerful phone at these price points by a wide margin and we believe based on our initial supply chain checks should translate into 30 million+ iPhone units out of the gates for this product launch,” Wedbush said following the event.
The new iPhone at $439, is $30 more expensive than its predecessor, raising some concern as to whether the price tag could prove a stumbling block to user adoption. Pre-orders starting Friday, March 18.
Wedbush said, however, that the “modest” price hike was reasonable given the supply-chain costs faced by the tech giant, and wasn’t likely to impact demand.
“In a backdrop of massive supply chain shortages and inflationary pressures, a modest increase is not surprising and should not impact overall demand in our opinion,” Wedbush added.
Apple also announced the Mac Studio, Apple's latest addition to the Mac lineup, starting at $1,999 with the M1 Max and $3,999 with the M1 Ultra. A new M1 Ultra chip was also unveiled as well as a new iPad Air, and two new colors for the iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13.