What Recent Trends Could Affect Apple's Performance This Year?
Over 21 million hits on website
According to AppleInsider, the traffic to Apple’s website in China and India (EPI) saw “significant surges” on March 21, 2016, the day Apple announced the iPhone SE and 9.7-inch iPad Pro. According to market research firm SimilarWeb, the overall traffic stood at 21.5 million visits on March 21, an 83% increase over the previous day. This was below the 87% one-day surge for the iPhone 6s announcement last year and a 195% spike on the unveiling of the iPhone 6 in 2014.
China and India observe significant increase
Apple’s (AAPL) India (INDA) website witnessed an increase of 160% when iPhone SE was launched compared to a 59% rise on September 9, 2015, when iPhone 6S was launched. The 160% launch was much lower compared to the 186% rise when the iPhone 6 made its debut.
The website traffic in China (FXI) rose 150% for the iPhone SE event, suggesting a high level of interest. However, this was lower than the 155% increase in September 2015 and the massive 234% increase for the iPhone 6 event.
AppleInsider noticed that as the iPhone SE is not Apple’s flagship product, any comparisons with previous iPhone launches would not be fair. The iPhone SE is a product targeted towards emerging economies (EEM) including India and China. The product offers high performance at a relatively lower price.
Apple accounts for 15.6% of the Technology Select Sector SPDR (XLK). The other top holdings of this ETF include Microsoft (MSFT), Facebook (FB), and Google (GOOG). These three companies make up 10%, 5.6%, and 5.1% of the ETF, respectively.
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