Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s plans for the near future have once again been predicted by analyst Ming-Chi Kuo at KGI. A new research note from KGI analyst stated that in its developer conference, which is scheduled to be held next week, the iPhone maker along with the software announcements, may also unveil a relatively cheaper versions of iMac and iPhone 5s could be released by Apple.
Apple iMac shipment estimates slashed
Yesterday, in an OS X developer preview, new references appeared to an iteration of the Apple iMac, which is yet to be released. This was an indication that a new model is impending for release. Possibility is that this is the same iMac referred to in the report by KGI.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) iMac has for long been rumored for an upgrade, but even then the KGI analyst have slashed the estimates for iMac shipments as the PC market is on a decline owing to tough competition from smart phones and tablets:
“However, as the PC market remains sluggish, we revise down our 2014 iMac shipments forecast from 4.8mn units to 4.0-4.5mn units, even though we think a cheaper iMac can boost shipments,” noted Kuo.
8GB iPhone 5S, unusual
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s 8 GB iPhone 5s would also be available as per the report. The iPhone 5c is already available in 8GB capacity from some time in overseas markets, but the 5s model is available in the lowest capacity of 16GB, as of now. Kuo believes that making 5s model available in a lower capacity of 8GB and at a lower price is a part of the company’s strategy to boost sales in emerging markets as majority of middle class customers cannot afford the highly priced premium iPhone from Apple.
Rumors of the iPhone 6’s release around September have been doing the rounds for quite some time now, and this makes the release timing of 8 GB version of iPhone 5s a bit unusual. However, there might be a possibility that only 8 GB version on iPhone 5s stays along with the iPhone 6 to make the product line more robust.
