 "iphone 7")
Shares of Apple slid Friday amid speculation that German research firm GfK issued a report suggesting iPhone 7 sales would be lower than last year, based on data in Europe and Asia.
Apple shares dropped as much as 2.7 per cent as reports spread. The stock was trading down 1.6 per cent at $112.80 at 3:11 pm in New York. Business Insider said people who have seen a copy of the report say it claims that iPhone 7 unit sales are down 25 per cent on an annual basis, compared with the iPhone 6S of last year. GfK's report doesn't measure sales in the US.
"Numbers on sales or market shares are confidentially provided to our clients and shall not be quoted or released to the public," GfK said in an e-mailed statement. "We did not publish these figures for external release."
An Apple spokeswoman didn't immediately comment on the report.
A Taiwan-based electronics newsletter Digitimes reported earlier Friday that Apple told its chip partners that iPhone 7 chip orders would fall about 20 per cent in the first quarter of 2017 from the previous quarter.
BLOOMBERG
