The iPhone 6s smashed records in its first weekend on sale, selling a massive 13 million handsets in just three days. However, integrated circuit makers in Apple’s supply chain are complaining that Apple is reportedly lowering its number of orders for this year’s holiday season.
Apple is said to have ordered between 75-80 million iPhone 6s and 6s Plus handsets as its first order, but is lowering its subsequent Q4 order to “just” 65-70 million. This is a smaller figure than the 75 million units suppliers were banking on, and is prompting surprise on the part of manufacturers.
As noted, the iPhone 6s did a monster opening weekend this year, although this also included the massive market that is China. Last year, China was not part of the iPhone 6 opening weekend due to regulatory problems which delayed the release of the handset. Apple hasn’t released a breakdown of where sales took place, but it’s perfectly possible that demand has been lower for the new iPhones, and that the 13 million number is bolstered by the number of markets included on launch day.
Last year’s iPhone 6 launched in ten markets, including the U.S., Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Puerto Rico, Singapore and the United Kingdom. This year, the iPhone 6s launched in a total of 12 countries, with China and New Zealand joining the 2014 line-up.
Before anyone gets too concerned though, this is just one supplier — and we’ve heard contradictory reports from others. Prior to the launch of the iPhone 6s, Japan Display CEO Mitsuru Homma came forward about the fact that Apple is increasing its iPhone 6s orders. “They’re coming to us with more orders, saying ‘give us more, give us more’. They keep increasing,” Homma said.
There are plenty of possibilities at play here, such as the fact that Apple is shifting around suppliers, or just feels it’s got more of a gauge on how much inventory it needs for the growing Chinese market (which was more of an unknown last year.)
Let’s not forget that the last time Apple released an incremental “s” iPhone release, it took 10 days to hit the 13 million mark. And we thought that was amazing at the time.
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.
10 responses to “Apple lowers its iPhone 6s orders for the holiday quarter”
With Apple’s new program (as well as similar programs with the carriers) it will be interesting to see how this affects orders and parts suppliers. Imagine having to refresh your entire customer base whenever a new phone comes out!
Refresh an entire customer base….
You made it sound as if everyone will be jumping abroad the new apple program, which is quite wrong.
Most people will not be doing that but will rather continue with their existing carrier options.
As I mentioned, carriers are instituting similar programs, and those that don’t now, likely will in the near future. I’d agree that not everyone will participate in such programs, I think the number who will (in one form or another) will be VERY significant – very likely the majority, perhaps even a new standard (especially when given the choice between this and buying your phone outright).
Initially yes, but in 5 years time (if that long) the vast majority of Apple’s iPhone base will be using Apple’s or a carriers monthly installment plan
I think the strong Dollar might be a problem for Apple this time around. Prices in Europe have been raised again. An iPhone now costs 40 to 70 € more than last year depending on which model you choose. In Germany we pay at least 830 Dollars including Tax for a 16GB 6s and 1.200 Dollars for a 128GB 6s Plus.
You forget the the price paid in Germany includes VAT tax.
You better read before you post ;-).
Value Added Tax tax?
Why would you write a whole page when you specifically said that this information came from ONE source? Waste of time and not confirmed.
What bullshit. Apple doesn’t order by the quarter. Like all manufacturers it orders for the product cycle. This enables suppliers to plan their material/labor weds well in advance. Changes (up or down) from that agreement carry pricing penalties because of the expense involved with disrupting planned production.
The shorter the notice of order changes the greater the penalties. If a change were necessary it would be for future quarters so as to minimize those penalties synod that Apple would not reduce orders for a single component due to lower/higher than expected demand, it would change orders across the board. The only conceivable reason for a change would be if any ONE of the SEVERAL suppliers Apple contracts with, for each and every component in its products, fails to perform. Apple utilizes two, three, sometimes four suppliers per component. No supplier gets 100% of an order. That fact alone makes this report from Digitimes a blatant falsehood.