A week after the shock created by the announcement of a downward adjustment of its revenue forecast for the last quarter of 2018, we learn that Apple has decided to reduce by 10% the production of the new iPhones.
The Nikkei Asian Review claims that reliying on sources in the production chain, this negative readjustment would affect all the iPhone models still on the market, including the new iPhone Xr, Xs and Xs Max.
The original plan for 48 million sold units between January and March, later reduced to 43 million, is now taking another hit and is cut with an additional 10% to 40 million.
This decline in production would have been decided before the warning on the results of the last quarter whose turnover should be $ 84 billion instead of the 89 to 93 billion initially anticipated.
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This is the first time in 16 years that Apple has lowered its revenue forecast. To explain this setback, the US giant is advancing the economic slowdown in China since the second half of 2018 and an iPhone renewal rate less sustained than expected.
Apple is suffering from a maturing smartphone market and the impact of the U.S.-China trade war, even though most of its products are not yet subject to additional U.S. tariffs imposed on Chinese-made goods. “We did not foresee the magnitude of the economic deceleration, particularly in greater China,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a letter to investors when announcing the cut in revenue forecast. “We believe the economic environment in China has been further impacted by rising trade tensions with the United States.”
