iPhone X shipments are likely to be somewhere between 30-35 million in the fourth quarter of 2017, a new report claims.
If true, this would be something of a disappointment for Apple. Sources in the semiconductor packaging and testing service industry suggest that iPhone X pre-orders in markets including the United States, Taiwan, and Singapore were not as strong as expected.
Cowen analyst Karl Ackerman previously claimed that sales of the new device are “good,” but possibly not as good as anticipated.
Supply has caught up with demand
After suffering a number of manufacturing issues, Apple is now on-track with its iPhone X production. According to respected Apple analyst KGI Securities’ Ming-Chi Kuo, iPhone X assembler Foxconn is currently shipping 440,000 to 550,000 iPhone X units per day, representing an enormous increase on the 50,000 to 100,000 units being shipped each day just a couple months back.
Apple has also managed to get supply of its new handset to match up to demand, with next day delivery currently available for all models of iPhone X. Whether this is Apple’s operations wizardry or weaker-than-expected demand remains to be seen.
The report suggests that iPhone X shipments will drop slightly in the first quarter of 2018 or otherwise remain flat. It also claims that some markets, such as Japan, are still experiencing constrained supplies. As a result of the iPhone X’s alleged “weak performance,” Apple is said to be considering adjusting iPhone pricing in early 2018.
Not all of the news is quite so negative, though. The same report suggests that Apple Watch sales are doing very well. In 2018, the source expect Apple Watch shipments to reach 27 million units, higher than the previous forecasts of 23-25 million units.
Source: Digitimes
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
6 responses to “iPhone X demand may be weaker than Apple expected”
No one outside of Apple knows how many iPhone X units Apple expected to sell. Anything else is pure speculation. If Apple couldn’t keep up with demand, the analysts would have something negative to say about how weak Apple’s supply chain is. If Apple does meet demand, then someone else will say that demand wasn’t that high to begin with. For Apple, it will be considered a lose-lose situation no matter what happens. This type of negative stuff has been said many times before but when quarterly results are given, Apple will have likely exceeded all expectations by at least a little bit. If iPhone X sales are weak, then I’m sure Samsung Galaxy S and Note sales are also weak because they’ve already started reducing prices and Samsung is definitely introducing the S9 less than a year after their Galaxy S8 went on sale. However, I don’t hear anyone criticizing Samsung about weak flagship smartphone demand. Besides, Tim Cook had mentioned that both iPhone 8 and iPhone X sales were very strong. Whether anyone chooses to believe him is another story. I know for sure Apple said it would definitely meet or exceed guidance for the holiday quarter.
I think I’ll just wait until quarterly results are given and not bother to speculate on iPhone sales without having solid sources directly from Apple.
I don’t have their sales figures but I can tell you that I’ve only seen one iPhone X in the wild. I don’t think it’s as big of a hit as everyone expected. When I ask co-workers what they think about it many don’t even seem to know very much about it. Seems the biggest fans of the X are people on these forums.
“Seems the biggest fans of the X are people on these forums.”
I guess that, by the end of this month, there will be about 30 million people on these forums.
“iPhone X demand may be weaker than Apple expected
Apple may be considering a price reduction in early 2018.”
No.
And
No.
The price is sky high, Apple has 180 Billion in the Bank from overcharging for years. Tim Cook has asked everyone who doesn’t agree with his liberal politics to please not buy APPLE. I for one have been replacing all of my Macs with Surface Pro, Dell Workstations and Samsung Phones. Oh, also iCloud syncing and the Apple ecosystem is no longer the standard. It is so 2009 it stinks.
There have been 2 reports of weak demand for iPhone X, both coming from Digitimes, that has a pretty poor record for sales/demand analysis.