Shares in AAPL were sharply lower at the start of trading this morning on negative news about two new products; the Apple Watch Series 3 (which begins shipping tomorrow) and the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus.
For the Apple Watch Series 3, the bad news was that early reviewers had issues with the device not connecting to LTE networks — oddly enough, an issue caused by the Wi-Fi connectivity of the device.
An Apple spokesperson told The Verge — which had panned the Watch in a review based on the technical issues — that “We have discovered that when Apple Watch Series 3 joins unauthenticated Wi-Fi networks without connectivity, it may at times prevent the watch from using cellular. We are investigating a fix for a future software release.”
As the Watch will be in the hands of many early adopters tomorrow, the need for a fast fix is imperative for Apple. With the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus, the “issue” isn’t really a surprise. Orders for the two new iPhones are slower than they were for the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, primarily because of anticipation of the iPhone X. What analysts don’t seem to grok is that that most likely means that iPhone X sales will be better than expected.
Of course, there’s also news of a possible slow ramp-up of production of the iPhone X, which has also affected AAPL’s price. My personal take? We’ll see share prices hovering around $150 until the Watch fix is shipped. The next big leap in share price happens when the iPhone X hits the market and the company can’t make enough to meet the demand.
