According to The Wall Street Journal, Apple has reduced its orders for both the iPhone XS and iPhone XR.
This comes at a time when the overall smartphone market is slowing down. This is supposedly making it difficult for Apple to accurately forecast just how much demand there is for each of its three smartphone models.
The problem seems to mainly be affecting Apple’s suppliers, however. An anonymous source tells the WSJ, “Growth fixes a lot of sins. When it slows, rocks start to show up in the bottom of the ocean.” They also claim that, “doing business with Apple is very risky as it often reverses what it has promised.”
While Apple has suffered recent stock price setbacks, it has been able to largely shield itself from the smartphone slowdown. For one thing, Apple has raised the average sale price of its handsets, meaning that it needs to sell fewer units to make the same cash. It has also focused on growing other parts of its business — mainly the Services division — to pick up some of the slack.
Today’s report suggests that Apple has reduced its iPhone XR orders by up to one-third. The iPhone XS and XS Max have also suffered cuts, but less significant ones.
The risk of doubting Apple
While publications like the Wall Street Journal certainly have strong reputations, it’s still worth questioning reports such as this. Technology analyst Ben Bajarin recently warned that “trying to gain insight into Apple’s supply chain for signals is a fool’s errand.”
Last year, similar doom predictions were made about the iPhone X, only for it to turn out analysts couldn’t have been more wrong.
Will the same happen with the iPhone XR and XS/Max? We’ll have to wait and see (as best we can not that Apple stopped releasing sales figures). Still, betting against Apple frequently doesn’t go well!
Source: The Wall Street Journal
