Poor sales of the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus may be dragging down “the momentum” of the iPhone X, a new report claims.
Citing component suppliers in the iPhone supply chain, it’s claimed that the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus began to show signs of declining demand in the fourth quarter of 2017, and overall component orders for iPhone devices in Q1 2018 have dropped 15-30 percent below the expected numbers as a result.
“Some suppliers reportedly plan to temporarily halt their production in February as the low order visibility from Apple and the week-long Lunar New Year holidays will drastically bring down their capacity utilization rates,” claims the report.
The reduced orders are hitting many in the upstream supply chain, including those manufacturing memory chips, camera modules, 3D sensing modules, PCBs and IC backend service firms. As a result, they have been alerted to the need to control their inventory levels to cushion the possible impacts that might accompany decreasing iPhone orders.
Apple’s iPhone X and iPhone 8 supercycle
So far, there have been mixed reports about the success of Apple’s latest iPhones, which were considered to be a “supercycle” for Apple.
Apple managed to get iPhone X supply to match up with demand much sooner than most were expecting — although there has been disagreement over whether this is a case of Apple’s operations wizardry or of weaker-than-expected demand. One recent report suggested that weak demand has caused Apple to cut orders for the iPhone X from 50 million to 30 million units.
Similar conflicting reports concern the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus. Early reports suggested that the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus experienced disappointing first weekend sales, although KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has blasted these reports for being “excessively negative.”
Ultimately, we’ll find out for sure on February 1, when Apple hosts a conference call to discuss this very quarter.
What have been your anecdotal observations about the iPhone X and iPhone 8? Which, if any, have you bought? Have you spotted more of one than the other out on the streets? Let us know in the comments below.
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.
5 responses to “Poor iPhone 8 sales could be dragging down iPhone X momentum”
Anything to do with Apple asking $100-$150 more for every new iPhone model? It doesn’t surprise me that demand is sluggish for phones that start at $850
I think the days of people upgrading every year is over.
I have the Galaxy S8 and there’s no way I’m buying the S9.
From what I’ve seen in the wild it seems the X is selling more but it doesn’t seem as ubiquitous in my city as previous iPhone releases.
I bought an iPhone X & I know couple of my friends got one too. I haven’t seen anyone with iPhone 8 though
I have seen a total of 2 people with iPhone Xs and 5-6 with 8