Image via TipRanks
The Hosannahs and Heysannahs around iPhone continue. It seems the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology is out with its latest numbers of smartphone sales in China. Apple does not say how many iPhones it sells in a given period in China, and neither does the Academy… exactly… What the Academy does is list sales of imported smartphones. Since iPhone is the only smartphone from outside of China that sells in any great number there, folks tend to read “number of imported smartphones shipped” as “number of iPhones shipped,” and get happy or sad accordingly.
Apple watchers got happy on Thursday. Apple Insider highlights a note from JP Morgan analyst Samik Chatterjee. Having looked at the China Academy numbers, he sees shipments of international devices - aka iPhones - coming in at 7.3 million units last month. That’s way more than the historic January average of 4.8 million units.
But Chatterjee’s excitement is not just about last month. “Since October,” the piece says:
…Chatterjee writes that international smartphone shipments in China tracked at 30.3 million units, 20% higher year-over-year and 28% higher than the historical average.
And again - when we say “international,” we pretty much mean “iPhone.”
Chatterjee has a “Buy” rating on Apple shares. TipRanks puts his price target on Apple shares at $210.
