Apple, the developers of the famous iPod and iPad, shares are close to dropping below the $500 mark.
Premarket trading trends show that Apple shares have dropped nearly three percent and are sitting at around $504.25. The orders for the newest smartphone put out by Apple, the iPhone 5, have been cut in half due to the low demand for them. Just weeks after UBS analysy Steven Milunovich cut his iPhone sales estimates by 5 million units in three 2013 quarters. He felt that Apple would see troubling times ahead in trying to sell its products.
Apple’s shares have been dropping rapidly over the past several months, with a 52 week high of $705.07. Now though, Apple is reaching it’s 52 week low of $418.66. Over the last three months alone, Apple’s stock has slid to 17 percent.
The Wall Street Journal is claiming that the iPhone 5 screen orders placed by Apple for January-March are half the size of what they had originally planned.
Along with the orders cut for the iPhone 5, Apple has decided to cut orders for other products as well.
Research firm IDC suggests iPhones accounted for 14.6 per cent of worldwide smartphone shipments in the third quarter of 2012, down from a peak of 23 per cent in the first quarter of last year, and less than half of that of rival smartphone vendor Samsung’s 31.3 per cent market share.
Reports from the Wall Street Journal say that Apple is thinking of putting out a cheaper, lower-end iPhone later this year. Other reports indicated that Apple has already begun testing it’s next large smartphone and IOS operating system, of course titled the iPhone 6 and IOS 7.
