Apple will be allegedly reducing orders of the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus to suppliers by as much as 30 percent this quarter. iPhone 6s and 6s Plus sales are apparently considerably less than that of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus in the year-ago quarter. If this is true, it seems that Apple has been making too much supply for simply not enough demand.
“Inventories of the two models launched last September have piled up at retailers in markets ranging from China and Japan to Europe and the U.S. amid lackluster sales,” according to the report from Nikkei Asian Review. “Customers saw little improvement in performance over the previous generation, while dollar appreciation led to sharp price hikes in emerging markets.”
This isn’t confirmed knowledge just yet, only a report of the expectation that Apple will soon cut back on outputs. The original plan was to produce around the same amount of units as the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus for this time last year, but instead with less production, retailers have more opportunity to burn through the units they already have in stock. Suppliers, meanwhile, are left to suffer.
The only way we’ll know for sure is when Apple eventually releases its first quarter (calendar year) earnings to reveal the number of iPhone 6s units shipped and/or sold, which won’t be for another few months. The iPhone has been like a jetpack for Apple over the last several years and it would certainly be the end of an era if growth finally began to stall. And Wall Street would lose it big time.
