Sales of Apple’s latest iPhone, the 6s and 6s Plus, are off to a good start after record initial demand.
According to media reports, 12 to 13 million new iPhones were sold during the very first weekend, compared to near 10 million iPhone 6 and 6 Plus models sold in 2014.
The question gold bugs ask is whether the robust sales can lead to an increase in physical demand for gold and support the prices.
The World Gold Council answer is disappointing.
Krishan Gopaul, market intelligence analyst at the World Gold Council (WGC), said to Kitco News that although electronic gadgets are important to gold demand in tech applications, "a new smart phone or electronic device, even if it is a best seller, will not have a material impact on global gold demand in tonnage terms."
According to the council, total demand for the yellow metal in the technologies sector
for the first half of 2015 totaled 165.9 tonnes, which is about 7.8%
of the total gold market.
The WGC also highlighted that gold demand in the tech sector is always moderately stable from quarter to quarter keeping between 90 and 80 tonnes.
Giants like Apple are usually silent on how much gold is used in
the electrical components of its products. But a year earlier an analyst from the WGC said that smartphones
on average contain about 25 milligrams, or 0.00088 ounces.
The WGC also cautioned that these levels aren’t precise and depend upon phone models and versions.
As the latest available numbers show, the total quantity of gold in Apple’s initial iPhone sales, at most, equaled about 114,640 ounces - slightly less than 2% of total tech sector demand in the first half of the year.
