The Nikkei Asian Review said on Wednesday that Apple Inc., which last week cut its quarterly sales projection, had lowered the scheduled manufacturing of its three new iPhone models by roughly 10% for the January–March quarter.
In China, the largest smartphone market in the world, where a slowing economy has also been hampered by a trade conflict with the United States, declining iPhone demand was revealed by that unusual prediction decrease.
The new iPhones are too expensive, according to a number of analysts and customers.
According to the Nikkei, which cited people with knowledge of the issue, Apple ordered its suppliers late last month to create fewer units of its XS, XS Max, and XR models than anticipated.
The request was made before Apple announced its forecast cut, the Nikkei said. The bleaker sales outlook, which Apple attributed to weak China demand, triggered a broad sell-off in global stock markets.
Market research firm Canalys estimates shipments fell 12% in China last year and expects smartphone shipments in 2019 to dip another 3%, to below 400 million for the first time since 2014.
Overall planned production volume of both old and new iPhones is likely to be cut to a range of 40 million to 43 million units for January-March, from an earlier projection of 47 million to 48 million units, the Nikkei reported, citing one source familiar with the situation.
A request for comment from Reuters was not immediately answered by Apple.
The study follows the identification of low first-quarter chip demand for smartphones by chip suppliers Skyworks Solutions Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
Taiwanese assemblers Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd (Foxconn) and Pegatron Corp. are suppliers of Apple’s iPhones. When contacted by Reuters, Pegatron refused to comment on the report, and Foxconn did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
