Apple: Barclays Cuts FY Q1 iPhone Forecast; Sees Ultra-Portable Macbook, Possible Phone Price Cuts In 2009

The latest cautionary comment from the Street on the prospects for Apple (AAPL) iPhone sales for the December quarter comes from Barclays Capital analyst Ben Reitzes ; his comments follow a number of other analysts who this week raised questions about how the phone will fare in a softer economy. Reitzes cut his iPhone estimate for the quarter to 5 million units from 6.2 million, down from 6.9 million in the September quarter, to reflect continued weakness in the economy. He does say that there are factors that could lift that number, however, including a distribution partner in China or the addition of Wal-Mart (WMT) distribution in the U.S. But he also says that if sales are soft exiting the quarter, a price cut early in 2009 would not be surprising. He also asserts that Apple is likely to broaden its iPhone line with a low-end model, but not until calendar Q3 2009 at the earliest. Reitzes also asserted that it “makes complete sense” for the company to introduce an ... (link)