The small AirPods has built a foothold for Apple, with a market share of 76% in Bluetooth wireless headphones.
Apple's latest quarter financial report was released, down five% compared with the same period last year, iPhone revenue fell 17%, and Greater China sales fell 22%. With a series of ugly numbers in the financial report, Apple's stock price rose by nearly 8% since April 30. Why?
's youngest product,
is estimated to generate 300 billion annual revenue
answers are revealed, AirPods, Apple's Bluetooth wireless headphones, are one of its main driving forces for "revenue declines, stock price rises", and are also a new highlight of its performance growth this year and next year.
According to Apple's financial report, the "Wearing Device" project has grown by 30% in the latest quarter, surpassing other projects such as iPhone, iPad, software services, etc.; and the total revenue of wearable devices has surpassed Apple's iPad for the first time.
Apple CEO Cook pointed out that if "Apple Wearing Devices" are regarded as a company, the scale can already be among the top 200 companies in the world, among which AirPods has become a "cultural phenomenon".
Apple wearable devices have two major items: one is watch and the other is headphones. However, Gu Neng's research pointed out that from 2018 to 2022, the compound annual growth rate of various smart wearable devices ranked first with "ear-wearing devices", as high as 48%, and watches are only half of that.
China Tianfeng Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo pointed out in a research report that Apple will sell 52 million AirPods this year and challenge 85 million AirPods next year, which is nearly twice the sales of Apple Watch.
In other words, this "youngest" product of Apple is a small thing weighing only 4 grams, and a pair of charging boxes are only sold for $159, which can bring Apple's revenue in the next year!
"(Bluetooth wireless headphones) exceed everyone's expectations," said Lu Junkuan, director of the research department of research institution Gu Neng in Taiwan, pointing out that Apple is not the first company to make Bluetooth wireless headphones, but it has opened up the market, and the profit of accessories is not bad. With the iPhone's gross profit margin is about 40%, but the accessories can reach more than 50%.
Apple has cultivated this fertile land, and major mobile phone manufacturers such as Samsung, , Huawei , have successively launched similar products. "The lenses, screens, etc. of smart phones are developing to the extreme, and this year they are turning to peripheral accessories," said Gao Hongxiang, research manager of research institution IDC.
Because Apple drives the trend, German consulting company GFK has shown that the total global shipment of Bluetooth wireless headphones this year can reach 100 million pairs, and another 50% growth next year.
"Apple's financial report this time can see that the hardware is good and bad. The bad ones are iPhone and laptop, and the good ones are iPad and wearable devices," said Cai Minghan, manager of Cathay Securities Consulting Office, who holds "good orders" such as AirPods, which can turn over and become the "good Apple" favored by funds.
Xinrixing is a case of "pigs and sheep changing color". Xinnixing was originally an Apple laptop bearing supplier, but its performance was not outstanding. When he first took over the AirPods order, his initial gross profit margin was only 20% (Editor's note: The original business gross profit margin was nearly 30%), and he was almost doing a money-loss business.
But Xinnixing's gross profit margin can rebound to nearly 27% this year. A research report from Cathay Securities Period pointed out that this year's after-tax earnings per share (EPS) is expected to reach more than 8 yuan, which almost doubles compared with two years ago, driving the stock price to rise by 50% in half a year.
Other companies such as the micro lithium battery, the audio chip Realtek , the acoustic component Meilu and the micro-electromechanical microphone Yutai have all benefited from the rise of the Bluetooth headphone trend.
Take Realtek as an example. Fubon Investment Consulting estimates that Realtek's revenue this year will exceed 55 billion yuan, a growth of more than 20% compared with last year. The EPS will exceed 10 yuan this year and next year. In the past six months, the company's stock price has risen by more than 70%.
However, wherever profits come, the red supply chain is coming. For example, Insider was originally the largest supplier of AirPods assembly, but Chinese manufacturer Luxshare said to have snatched about half of the orders. Will AirPods repeat the mistakes of the red supply chain invasion?
The head of the securities research department said that as a dispersed supplier, orders are inevitably divided, but some Apple supply chains in Taiwan have two major "moats": First, the first wave of major Taiwanese supply chains to win AirPods orders has been overcome, and the "pain period" of low yield has been overcome, but for some red supply chains, the pain has just begun.
Second, Bluetooth wireless headphones are introduced, for example, the new AirPods that are expected to be launched in the fourth quarter of this year are expected to add noise-resistant functions, and the difficulty of parts manufacturing is increased. If the Taiwan supply chain can raise the technical threshold, it is not afraid of the red supply chain grabbing orders.
Simply put, the lower the technical threshold, such as assembly, the more likely it is to be robbed; but the higher the threshold, the more difficult it is to rob the key components, such as precision bearings, etc.
