A renowned Apple futurist is predicting that yellow and rose gold variants of the Apple Watch will be unveiled along with the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus this September.
Ming-Chi Kuo, an analyst for KGI Securities, may not have a perfect record in predicting the moves of Apple—no one does—but he has been by far the most accurate in calling Cupertino's steps.
In Kuo's latest note, he offers a look ahead at the Apple Watch and Apple's other hardware money makers.
While gold, not just the color, is available in the top-of-the-line Watch Edition, whose price starts at $10,000 for an 18 karat coating, Kuo predicts that the entry-level Apple Watch Sport will be painted in yellow and rose gold soon. The analyst is likely basing that prediction, at least in part, on the belief that Apple is preparing a rose gold option for its latest smartphone series.
The KGI Securities analyst also offered his best guesses on shipments of the Apple Watch, figures Tim Cook and company have held to the chest. He estimates that Apple moves 3.9 million of the smartwatches during the second quarter and expects figures for the current three-month period to hover somewhere around 5.5 million.
With Apple expected to introduce the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus in September, Kuo estimates that the original iPhone 6 and 6 Plus' shipments will fall to about 40 million this quarter from about 54 million during the previous perdiod.
While iPhone sales are expected to slide ahead of a refresh, the movement of Macs is predicted to pick up this quarter. Kuo believes Mac shipments will climb from about 5.3 million units in the previous quarter to about 5.8 million for the current term.
Lastly, the iPad is expected to lose more steam this quarter with shipments at around 8.8 million tablets shipped through. Kuo thinks Apple may introduce a lighter verison of iPad Air 2, but it may not make it off the assembly line in time to bolster the current quarter's totals.
