CREDIT SUISSE: Apple is slashing iPhone orders

AP

One theory the analysts have for the lack of interest in the iPhone 6S is the disappointing number of apps that actually use Apple's new 3D Touch function, one of Apple's main bragging points for the new phone.

The analysts estimate that Apple will build fewer than 80 million units of the iPhone 6S in the fourth quarter of this year, and they have lowered their expectations for units built next year to 222 million from 242 million.

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But this doesn't necessarily signal long-term trouble for the iPhone business as a whole, according to Credit Suisse.

One positive factor the analysts point to is the new upgrade plans Apple has rolled out for iPhone users. The plans let you pay for an iPhone in monthly installments ($36.58 for the 64GB iPhone 6S) and upgrade to a new iPhone every year. Credit Suisse says these new installment plans will accelerate the rate at which people upgrade their iPhones, a theory backed up by its research.

The analysts also have high hopes for the general growth of the iPhone user base, which they predict will grow to 615 million, continuing the 24% growth in the past year.

It has been a big year for Apple.

The company reported its fourth-quarter earnings in October, announcing that it had sold 48.05 million iPhones, representing 22% growth year-over-year. Apple also had the largest annual profit of any company in history, $53.4 billion, which beat Exxon's annual profit of $42.8 billion in 2008. (Apple's fiscal year ended September 30.)

That record-smashing profit represents a 35% growth from last year, 28% growth from its previous record year, and a whopping 41 times growth from a decade ago, when the iPhone had yet to be announced.

Statista

While some analysts worry that Apple will eventually come up against "the law of large numbers," which suggests that massive companies can't continue to deliver strong growth, Apple has defied them so far.

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