Supply Chain Indicators Point to Poor February for Apple

Citigroup's recent claim that Apple would miss its own Q1/Q2 revenue forecasts has been lent weight by Topeka Capital's Apple Monitor reporting that key Apple suppliers had a "terrible" February (via Business Insider).

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The monitor, which tracks the results of Apple's key suppliers, is compiled by Topeka Capital's Brian White, an analyst normally bullish on Apple.

When [supplier] results are good, it usually means good things for Apple. When the results are bad, watch out.

White says the February results for his Apple Monitor were down 31 percent sequentially, which compares to the typical 8 percent decline. Even if you factor in the Chinese New Year, he still says it's bad.

The Chinese New Year tends to result in significantly reduced production, but White calculates that factoring that in still results on a fall in production of 15%, amounting to "the worst February we have on record." White goes on to observe that most of the preliminary Taiwan monitors show weak results, suggesting that the slowdown is affecting the whole industry, though Apple's supply chain figures appear worse than most.

Last month, research firm NPD revealed surprisingly strong Mac and iPod sales in the U.S. for the month of January, but with those product families accounting for smaller and smaller proportions of Apple's revenue, iPhone and iPad sales have become the primary drivers of Apple's performance.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has cautioned against reading too much into supply chain reports, noting that the company has multiple sources for many components and that yield rates may vary over time, but Topeka's Apple Monitor attempts to take some of those fluctuations into account by taking a broader view spanning a number of companies within Apple's supply chain.

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Top Rated Comments

walie Avatar
159 months ago
Define "recent years" please.

"years" that happened "recently"
Score: 31 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Ceviche Lover Avatar
159 months ago
goodbye apple, hello samsung. this is what happens when you sit on your ass and let competitors catch up to you.
Score: 27 Votes (Like | Disagree)
spiderman0616 Avatar
159 months ago
Wall Street has decided they're done with Apple and are now doing whatever they can to tear it all the way down to the ground. Good reason to just stop listening to them unless you own the stock, which I don't.
Score: 23 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Rogifan Avatar
159 months ago
The Guardian newspaper (UK) had a great article this weekend explaining why Apple are in decline. There stock is down 40% in 6 months and they are not doing anything new or innovative that has the wow factor in recent years. They are not disappearing anytime soon but they are losing brand loyalty as people do want quality but also something new. If you have stock I would be tempted to ditch it! Buy it again when its at its lowest as im sure Apple will bounce back in years to come.

What is all this new and innovative stuff others are doing? And it hasn't been even 2 years since Steve died. What exactly do these people think Apple should have done the last 1.5 years? I suppose they could have released a 5" phone to wow the tech press and Wall Street but not sure what exactly is innovative about a larger screen. One could argue Microsoft was "innovative" with Windows 8 but the customer response seems to be quite muted. So why would Apple add touch screen to the macs when it's not taking off in the PC market? Again, I'd love to know exactly what innovation the Guardian thinks Apple should be doing that its not right now. Or are they just parroting the broader theme in the media echo chamber these days.
Score: 22 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ugahairydawgs Avatar
159 months ago
I still don't understand why anyone, outside of a shareholder, should care about this.

Does your iPhone, iPad, or Mac work well for you? Yes? Then carry on about your day.
Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)
gatearray Avatar
159 months ago
goodbye apple, hello samsung. this is what happens when you sit on your ass and let competitors catch up to you.

I know, right? Apple should get it together, I hear that the GSIII was "designed for humans" which is much more innovative than the previous version which was apparently designed for cats.

:)
Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)