The coronavirus is likely to take a bite out of iPhone sales, a top tech analyst said.
TFI Securities’ Ming-Chi Kuo is slashing his forecast for first-quarter iPhone sales by 10 percent, to between 36-40 million units, the analyst said in an investor note over the weekend.
That would be in line with the first quarter of 2019, when Apple moved 38 million iPhones, according to the analyst. Apple stopped reporting unit sales of iPhones last year, just as the year-ago quarter began.
Kuo added that it is “difficult to predict” shipments in the second quarter due to “uncertainties of the coronavirus epidemic and consumer confidence.”
He urged investors revisit the iPhone supply chain “after the coronavirus epidemic becomes stable.”
Apple shares were off 0.3 percent at $308.54 in Monday afternoon trades. The stock is off more than 5 percent from last week’s all-time high as the epidemic has raised concerns about the Chinese supply chain.
The coronavirus has led the US to declare a public health emergency and place a temporary ban on foreigners who have traveled to China recently. The virus has killed more than 360 people, mainly in China, and sickened more than 17,000 people around the world.
New York City officials on Sunday confirmed that two people in Queens are being tested for possibly having contracted the coronavirus.
