Rumor: iPhone 8 Production Slashed in Half On Weak Demand
We’ve said from the beginning Apple could be facing a serious problem with the iPhone 8, 8 Plus, and iPhone X. As demand for the first two has failed to materialize, and with Apple X shipments still far below what the company will need to meet demand, Apple’s decision to launch the iPhone X could whack its finances. Now there are reports that the company has cut iPhone 8 production by as much as 50 percent. It’s the first time in history the company has ever reduced its orders by so much so soon after an iPhone launch.
Reuters first the story from Taiwan’s , but Google Translate’s weak Chinese handling means we’d recommend reading the Reuters version.
Verizon’s CFO, Matt Ellis, has acknowledged the number of upgrading customers is lower this year than in previous years, though he also stated he expects a surge as the iPhone X launches. Daniel Ives, chief strategy officer with GBH Insights, told Reuters, “iPhone 8 demand has been naturally soft out of the gates with the main event being the iPhone X launch in early November. (But) this is the early innings of what we believe is the biggest iPhone product cycle with X leading the way.”
Can the iPhone X Make Up the Slack?
There are differing reports as to how much demand the iPhone X is expected to enjoy, or how much Apple . As we’ve previously , even at 400,000 phones per week, Apple can only ship four million iPhone Xs before the end of the year. Apple doesn’t break down its products by segment, so we can’t say how many iPhones the company ships of any specific model. But limited demand for the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus, combined with limited supply of the iPhone X, seems as if it could deliver Apple the worst of both worlds.
There’s another facet to this discussion as well. My current iPhone 5c is four years old and based on a five year old SoC. It’s definitely slow on many modern sites. But my iPhone 3G was so slow by 3.5 years old as to barely be useful at the same age. Part of this was due to iOS 4, which may have added multi-tasking, but also made the phone slower in many basic tasks. But part of it was the speed of SoC advances back then. The iPhone 6s is over two years old at this point, but still up for sale at Apple’s site, and no one I know who owns one considers it slow. This could work against Apple in any kind of delayed shipping scenario with the iPhone X: If your current phone is still pretty good, you may decide not to upgrade at all.