Apple Has Been Playing Smartphone Catch-Up Since 2010

Dan Collins of CCO Global was a guest on CNBC early Wednesday morning to discuss Apple Inc. AAPL's quarterly report, with a focus on iPhone sales.

Collins stated that Apple was at the "forefront" in 2007, but that has drastically changed as the company reported its first ever decline in iPhone sales. He added that Apple's outlook for iPhone sales in the bottom half of the year is "looking even worse."

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Collins went on to discuss Apple's latest phone release, the iPhone SE. He said that the phone offers "nothing new" and copied last year's design. Given a lack of new innovation, he suggested that Apple has been playing "catch-up" with Android devices dating back to the iPhone 4.

The conversation switched over to the topic of saturation in the smartphone market. Collins believes that the market is indeed saturated and Apple faces even stronger competition from Chinese players who are starting to enter the market. Meanwhile, iPhone sales fell 11 percent in China during the quarter.

Collins also suggested that Apple may be caught in a cycle as consumers are eagerly awaiting the release of the iPhone 7 – a phone which the company might "not even start talking about until September."