iPhone X Demand Plummeted Few Months After Release, Apple’s Partners Reveal

Apple’s iPhone X is being plagued by disappointing news. The latest of which comes from the Cupertino giant’s manufacturing partners, who have disclosed that there’s been a sharp slowdown after the 10th anniversary handset’s peak last December.

Bloomberg reported Tuesday that five of Apple’s largest device assemblers have already confirmed the weak demand for the iPhone X. They said that the demand for the premium smartphone has undeniably plummeted just a quarter after its release.

It appears that the iPhone X’s novelty quickly waned after just a few months — an ominous sign for Apple and its market performance for the months preceding the launch of the next-generation iPhones for this year.

Hai Precision Industry Co., Pegatron Corp. and three other key suppliers have noted a sharp slowdown in the latter part of the first quarter. This is being linked to the Cupertino giant’s struggle to lure more consumers to its most-expensive smartphone especially in emerging markets. On the contrary, Apple’s Chinese rivals like Huawei and Xiaomi continue to dominate China and roll out more premium but less expensive handsets.

“According to our estimates, iPhone X’s production volume fell by 50 percent in the first quarter compared to the fourth quarter,” Taipei-based research firm Trendforce analyst Mia Huang said. With this, investors are deeply concerned with what Apple is going to report on May 1. They also fear that overall iPhone sales may have failed to meet expectations due to the poor performance of the iPhone X.

Consumer Intelligence Research Partners also disclosed recently that the iPhone X only captured 16 percent of sales, while the yearly updates, iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus, managed to secure 44 percent. The biggest surprise in CIRP’s report however, has to do with how the older iPhone 7 series outsold the current flagship model. The iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus snagged 20 percent of sales in the first quarter of 2018.

“After the initial excitement over the iPhone X features, the highest priced flagship appears to have settled into a smaller share of sales,” CIRP co-founder Josh Lowitz pointed out in the report. “Surprisingly, iPhone models introduced in 2015 and 2016 continued to show strong sales,” Mike Levin, who is the other co-founder of CIRP, added.