In a note to clients — KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo — says that Apple won’t refresh the iPhone SE in the first half of 2017 as Apple attempts to maintain high margins on its high-end iPhones.
He predicts that total shipment volume of iPhones will decline in the first half of 2017 due to tepid demand in China, slow shipment volume of 4.7-inch iPhones and the lack of an iPhone SE refresh in the second quarter of the year. Kuo argues that shipment volume came in higher in the first half of 2016 due to “upbeat demand for the iPhone SE.”
My take: I think Apple WILL refresh the iPhone SE in 2017, though it may be the latter half instead of the first half of the year.
