Apple supplier Qorvo guides high for Sept. quarter, suggesting strong 'iPhone 7' orders
Qorvo, a supplier of RF components to Apple, is offering strong guidance for the September quarter that hints at a healthy "iPhone 7" ramp and possibly even the phone shipping a week earlier than usual, an analyst claimed on Wednesday.
The company is guiding revenue forecasts over $100 million higher than Wall Street consensus, noted Wells Fargo's Maynard Um in a memo seen by AppleInsider. That's said to imply a sequential growth of 19 percent -- stronger even than the 15 percent seen with the iPhone 6 launch in 2014. It's also higher than fellow Apple supplier Skyworks' guidance for the September quarter, pointing to a 10 to 11 percent increase.
Um cautioned that it's difficult to gauge how important Apple's contribution will be to Qorvo, since factors like demand from Chinese phone manufacturers could be driving up revenue as well.
The performance of Apple suppliers has become unusually significant in 2016, since the "iPhone 7" lineup has sometimes described as another interim refresh ahead of more important 2017 models. If so, Apple might decide to keep production levels modest.
Other suppliers have provided mixed signals. While some have posted positive results and forecasts, Foxconn chairman Terry Gou reportedly told staff to expect weak iPhone sales until early 2017.
A recent rumor indicated that new iPhones will ship on Sept. 16, which would be roughly one week earlier in the month than 2015's iPhone 6s launch.
The company is guiding revenue forecasts over $100 million higher than Wall Street consensus, noted Wells Fargo's Maynard Um in a memo seen by AppleInsider. That's said to imply a sequential growth of 19 percent -- stronger even than the 15 percent seen with the iPhone 6 launch in 2014. It's also higher than fellow Apple supplier Skyworks' guidance for the September quarter, pointing to a 10 to 11 percent increase.
Um cautioned that it's difficult to gauge how important Apple's contribution will be to Qorvo, since factors like demand from Chinese phone manufacturers could be driving up revenue as well.
The performance of Apple suppliers has become unusually significant in 2016, since the "iPhone 7" lineup has sometimes described as another interim refresh ahead of more important 2017 models. If so, Apple might decide to keep production levels modest.
Other suppliers have provided mixed signals. While some have posted positive results and forecasts, Foxconn chairman Terry Gou reportedly told staff to expect weak iPhone sales until early 2017.
A recent rumor indicated that new iPhones will ship on Sept. 16, which would be roughly one week earlier in the month than 2015's iPhone 6s launch.
Comments
If the audio jack rumors are true, then Apple had better have an incredibly compelling argument for why removing that jack is good for users. I want to believe that they will have such an argument... but if they don't, it will be a disaster.
I think you are overly concerned about the audio jack issue -- there are several compelling reasons to abandon the current jack:
- Better waterproofing
- Better (thinner) design flexibility
- Reduced internal space
Apple could mitigate any potential issues by including/offering an adapter for those who need it.I suspect that Apple will continue to provide earbuds with the iPhone (with the appropriate jack)
Finally, 2 years from now this will be a non-issue!
99.9% of iPhone buyers, that use headphones to listen to music on their iPhone, use the EarPods that ship with them. Apple will continue to ship, people will continue to use, life will continue uninterrupted.
The only people that think this even matters are the fringe of the fringe, who overpaid for expensive analog headphones, that don't sound any better than cheap analog headphones and don't want to acknowledge that such tech is dead, and they are among the only people dumb enough to spend money on keeping that business alive.
All of the profits in the current headphone industry are in wireless headphones. Why do you think that is? There is no market left for overpriced wired analog headphones.
Oh and lets not forget, the 100 different times Apple has abandoned a dead legacy technology that "is on every existing device in the world", which is "sure to be a disaster", and of course is not a disaster at all, the boldness of it gets them nothing but free press and more sales, and then within a year the tech they abandoned is dead and the rest of world is rushing to catch up.
But no, please...go on about removing the headphone jack is a disaster. It will make for hilarious reflection down the road.
One point you obviously don't get is the current HP market....There are way better headphones (yes you can hear the difference) than the EarPods. Hell they have $4000 HP's that can be used with an iPhone....they sound way better when they have their own HP amp but none the less your position on current HP technology is out of date and wrong...
And yes the Lightning port can provide a higher quality audio (it's digital and needs to be converted to analog) signal than the dead small HP jack.
Waterproofing is a good feature, but can it only be achieved by removing the jack? Samsung claims waterproofing without removing the jack. Now, I don't take Samsung claims very seriously, but Apple will need to clearly and decisively demonstrate that the iPhone 7 is much more water resistant than other phones if they want to use that as a reason for removing the jack.
I'm skeptical that the saved space will result in enough extra battery life to warrant the loss of such an essential feature as compatibility with all existing headphones.
Adapters suck. If everyone needs an adapter for basic functionality, then removing the jack is a terrible decision. I have no objection to including one for free, but it should be a bonus feature, not a necessary feature.
To me, a compelling case for removing the audio jack needs to be centered on the best wireless audio experience ever offered in any smartphone. Maybe that's bluetooth 5 combined with lightning pairing. Maybe it's achieved some other way. But the quality of the audio needs to be as good as AirPlay, the reliability of the connection needs to be almost as good as wired, and the pairing/charging process needs to be drop dead simple.
Also, one way or another, wireless EarPods/ headphones/whatever need to be included with the purchase. One way to do this might be to directly include awesome wireless EarPods. Another way to do it would be to include a $50 credit that could be applied to the purchase of Apple/Beats wireless headphones, and the cheapest available option would be $50 (so, cheap headphones are effectively included for all, but those who want to pay for a higher quality experience can do so with part of the cost offset by this credit).
But folks.... seriously... if it's just an adapter and/or some lightning EarPods, then this is going to get very ugly.
Maybe you're the one who doesn't understand Apple's market.
The audio jack is a bottleneck for quality. What comes out of it is shit compared to properly transmitted digital audio. So your choices on the wired analog headphone market are "Headphones that sound like shit for $19" or "Headphones that sound slightly better than shit for $399". At the end of the day, you are still being scammed. The choice of how much to be scammed out of is yours.
That's really all there is to it. It's time to stop propping up that dead technology, make portable digital audio common, and restart the headphone business around high quality digital audio.
I'm sorry if you've suffered some hearing damage and can't tell the difference between apple EarPods and $400 HPs but I can assure you that there is a difference.
Perhaps you're confused by the difference between "lossless" encoding and 256 bit AAC. In that case, I agree that the difference is very difficult to perceive -- you have to be very sensitive to detect that.