Pegatron CEO refutes report about waning demand for Apple's iPad mini
While a report about Apple supplier Pegatron this week claimed demand for the iPad mini has been softening, the company's CEO has revealed in a follow-up that he said nothing of the sort.
Philip Elmer-DeWitt of Apple 2.0 reached out to Pegatron Chief Executive Jason Cheng via e-mail after Bloomberg ran a report claiming demand for the iPad mini was falling. Cheng said after his company's Institutional Investors conference, one reporter from the publication approached him "trying to dig out detail numbers about some specific product."
"I clearly refused to comment on specific products, nor customers, even though he continued with other questions," Cheng said. "I did say those words that he quotes me in the article? but I did not say anything associated with any specific products."
The Pegatron CEO wrote off the piece by author Tim Culpan as "speculation," rather than based on anything he actually said.
The original Bloomberg story gained attention on Wednesday after it claimed that Pegatron said its revenues were negatively affected by waning demand for Apple's iPad mini. Pegatron's first-quarter profits were up more than 80 percent year over year, but Culpan's report focused on the fact that the supplier expects its second-quarter consumer electronics revenue to be down sequentially as much as 30 percent.
The media has been following Apple's key suppliers very closely in recent months as the company's growth has slowed. Market watchers pointed to weak results at companies like Cirrus Logic as negative signs for Apple.
Last month, Apple reported its first year over year profit decline in a decade, falling roughly 18 percent to $9.5 billion.
The intense focus on bits of information from Apple's supply chain led company CEO Tim Cook to warn investors in January that attempting to interpret such data is not a wise approach. Cook noted that the supply chain is complex, as Apple has multiple sources for various components, and that various factors ? such as production yields and supplier performance ? can skew the data.
"Even if a particular data point were factual, it would be impossible to interpret that data point as to what it meant for our business," he said.
Philip Elmer-DeWitt of Apple 2.0 reached out to Pegatron Chief Executive Jason Cheng via e-mail after Bloomberg ran a report claiming demand for the iPad mini was falling. Cheng said after his company's Institutional Investors conference, one reporter from the publication approached him "trying to dig out detail numbers about some specific product."
"I clearly refused to comment on specific products, nor customers, even though he continued with other questions," Cheng said. "I did say those words that he quotes me in the article? but I did not say anything associated with any specific products."
The Pegatron CEO wrote off the piece by author Tim Culpan as "speculation," rather than based on anything he actually said.
The original Bloomberg story gained attention on Wednesday after it claimed that Pegatron said its revenues were negatively affected by waning demand for Apple's iPad mini. Pegatron's first-quarter profits were up more than 80 percent year over year, but Culpan's report focused on the fact that the supplier expects its second-quarter consumer electronics revenue to be down sequentially as much as 30 percent.
The media has been following Apple's key suppliers very closely in recent months as the company's growth has slowed. Market watchers pointed to weak results at companies like Cirrus Logic as negative signs for Apple.
Last month, Apple reported its first year over year profit decline in a decade, falling roughly 18 percent to $9.5 billion.
The intense focus on bits of information from Apple's supply chain led company CEO Tim Cook to warn investors in January that attempting to interpret such data is not a wise approach. Cook noted that the supply chain is complex, as Apple has multiple sources for various components, and that various factors ? such as production yields and supplier performance ? can skew the data.
"Even if a particular data point were factual, it would be impossible to interpret that data point as to what it meant for our business," he said.
Comments
It's become almost as bad as all the analyst fluff.
So much negative press on Apple, and most of it must be either written by idiots or evil stock manipulators.
Like the report in the Wall St Journal in January, where the guy said "iPhone 5 orders in the Christmas quarter cut from 60 to 30 million" when nobody was expecting more than 30 million in the first place, they only sold 47 million total for all the iPhones.
http://appleinsider.com/articles/13/01/14/wsj-apple-cuts-iphone-5-component-orders-in-half-due-to-weak-demand
I am starting to move over to the conspiracy theory camp, I think that somebody was trying to manipulate the stock all spring, and despite the terrible job that they did the bovine investors trashed the stock price. Nice to see that the trend has changed though, I don't think that they can issue reports like this and still get any reaction.
[QUOTE]To contact the reporter on this story: Tim Culpan in Taipei at tculpan1@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Tighe at mtighe4@bloomberg.net.[/QUOTE]
I say drop a note to both him and his editor about this disgusting deceptive fake journalism.
It has to stop. They're creating an atmosphere of anti-Apple FUD that is actually causing harm to the company. It is a daily distraction for Tim Cook and others, I'm sure. So stupid and unnecessary. So American.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rogifan
Doesn't help when sites like Apple Insider, Mac Rumors and 9to5Mac pick up on it. Because the wider media (tech/financial/other) are constantly checking rumor sites for the latest "buzz". And if something gets reported here, they're more likely to re-report it.
Yep...fully agree with you. If these sites just stop giving it so much attention it would just die off.
We also have to give a little credence to the stock manipulation theory....they give all this negative Apple press.....stock goes down......they buy stock then release something positive about Apple then the stock goes back up and they have made tons of money....
Quote:
Originally Posted by anantksundaram
Does anyone seriously pay attention to this noise?
Unfortunately, it seems that nearly everyone does pay attention, then they repeat it as if it were verified fact.
Originally Posted by Rob55
Wow, you just got love the media, they just make shit up as they go along (I'm referring to Bloomberg here).
Originally Posted by Suddenly Newton
Negative press sells. Apparently, so do lies.
I agree with all three of you 100% — the media has and always will recklessly spread lies for one or two reasons: profit or political agenda (and the second reason is linked to the first in nearly every case: i.e. think about the subsidized corn/HFCS/Ethanol debacle). This is no different than any reportable arena where they distort every happening or just plain make shit up to feed the public thirst.
I hope Apple keeps the old ipad mini and do a decent price reduction on it. Maybe one model at 199$ ? The problem with Apple being the only makers of iOS hardware is its not covering the entire market.
I know purist dont want Apple to cover the low end, but not doing it hurts the ecosystem because its keeping out a lot people. If I was Apple, I would push special itunes rebates for buyers on the cheap iphone in both India and China in order to keep them from immediatly jailbreaking there phpne and pirate everything. More itunes income could make up for the lower margins.
Regarding the emerging market phone, my hopes are for a $150 cost with a 35% gross margin for a total of $200 per phone. I would only sell this model only in emerging markets at first or until supply is meet. Reminder, current iphone gross margin are between 50% to 70%.
At the very least, AppleInsider should include a cautionary tagline when they pass on something from Bloomberg or the WSJ, like they do with DigiTimes—"hit-or-miss," or "sometimes accurate."
In the case of Bloomberg et al, they can say "anti-Apple." Caught with their pants down this time, and it ain't a pretty sight.
Imagine a report made up a story out of a non story. I am glad to see the CEO to call out the reporter and the media who printed his words. Company need to begin doing what Hollywood is doing any time a rag magazine publish false information about an actor or actress. Company can easily prove the false reports has harmed company values. Imagine if a reporter or Trade Magazine has to pay for lost stock value of a company because they reported false negative information.
OR:
"
Apple supplier Pegatron boosts China workforce by 40 percent in second half"
http://nz.news.yahoo.com/a/-/technology/17081953/apple-supplier-pegatron-boosts-china-workforce-by-40-percent-in-second-half/
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rogifan
It all comes down to page views. Negative Apple stories generate clicks so sites like Forbes, Bloomberg, WSJ, etc.run with them. Rumor sites like AI have nothing to report on since Apple's gone quiet and we're not getting any new product leaks. They know people will stop coming to the site if its not updated with new stuff so they throw anything and everything up just to continue to drive traffic to the site.
It also comes down to reporters, bloggers, et al. wanting a dramatic story, combined with some negative aspects of human nature. The only thing that people love more that the rise of a hero is to watch the hero fall. So, while the rise of Apple was a great story, people get tired of hearing the same story over and over, and they love to tear down heroes, or watch them be torn down. It makes for a dramatic story. It makes for dramatic reading. And, as you point out, it sells newspapers and generates page views.