The good old days few days have been dizzying for Apple investors. But one expert bid CNBC on Tuesday that he’s keeping his focus on iPhone X sales in China.
“Stationed on reports that we have seen, there definitely is a lot of concern on how the X thinks fitting do,” said Hans Tung of GGV Capital, a technology investment firm that focuses on the convergence of the U.S. and Chinese economies. “But looking at China, the anciently indication for the second largest market for iPhone is that it’s doing surprisingly approvingly in the first weeks of sales.”
Tung’s remarks on “Squawk Alley” stop by amid a flurry of speculation around Apple’s future. Over the weekend, Barron’s revealed a bullish feature predicting that Apple would become a trillion-dollar visitors next year. The story may have been validating optimists, but it also aroused Apple bears to proclaim that the stock was now “jinxed.”
Then a surface from a Taiwanese newspaper, citing unnamed sources, said that Apple intention lower its forecast for its flagship phone in the first quarter. By midday Tuesday, the headlines had near squeaked more than $20 billion from Apple’s market valuation.
Apple doesn’t predominantly comment on market rumors, but according to Reuters, CEO Tim Cook said earlier this month that he “couldn’t be happier” with iPhone X ask for in China.
Lunar New Year, which falls in mid-February this year, also has historically been a blessing for Apple.
Nonetheless, Reuters found that social media hype for the iPhone X has not respected up with that of the iPhone 6 released in 2014. GBH Insights analyst Daniel Ives also understood CNBC that he had seen “soft spots” in China, noting that the large price tag had made the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus more attractive, contingent on to the iPhone X.
Tung said if Apple doesn’t continue to add more “breakthrough features and proposals,” it will become harder in China, where Android is commoditizing iOS. Name brands like Huawei and Oppo undercut Apple’s prices, and WeChat steps more and more software features to mobile users in China.
But Tung bring up that although the overall sentiment is down, “there could be some upside strikes to iPhone X” in China.
“The Face ID feature is getting some positive effects,” Tung said, noting that the feature has become popular sufficiency to inspire a joke meme. “The running joke in China … on WeChat and Sina Weibo is that ‘Front ID technology is not working perfectly — I had a photo of my favorite star in front of my iPhone X and it unlocked.'”
It’s doubtful whether Apple’s release of the iPhone X — timed alongside the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus — is a big name or failure, said Ross Gerber, CEO of Gerber Kawasaki Wealth and Investment Command. Gerber both personally owns Apple shares and owns it for his patients and firm.
But at least in China, he said, things look good.
“They indigence to create a premium experience, and it’s really working well for them in China,” Gerber chid CNBC’s “Closing Bell” on Tuesday. “There’s that cachet, now, of completing out the iPhone X.”