Apple is reportedly going to cut their production of iPhone X’s in half over the next quarter due to lower-than-expected demand.
The initial demand for the iPhone X when it was released was too much to deliver on-time, as it is a very difficult phone to make. However, their inventories have been building up since then and now it looks like the demand is just lower than they were hoping for.
Why isn’t it popular?
This is all speculation at this point, but there are a few quick reasons as to why the iPhone X is having low sales.
The first, and most obvious reason, is the enormous price tag. A $999 phone is a big investment, and while phone prices have been scaling up for a while, the difference between an $800 phone and a $999 phone (essentially a thousand dollars) has a bigger mental gap than $600 and $800.
The phone is so expensive because the screen for it is also very expensive, and Samsung is the only supplier that can sell them the screens they need at the rate that they need them. Somehow, I think that Samsung wouldn’t want to reduce their margins so that Apple could increase theirs.
Consumers may also be slow to get the iPhone X because it is such a step from the iPhone 6s, 7, and 8. The facial recognition technology is cool, but I personally heard from several people saying they expected it to have tech-related issues since it’s the first iPhone with that kind of technology.
How does this affect you?
In all likelihood, it won’t have a large effect on you personally. It will have an effect on the smartphone industry though, as manufacturers were expecting to be selling parts to help create 40 million iPhone Xs over the next quarter, and now they’re only going to be making 20 million.
Other big players like Apple’s closest rival Samsung, and of course Google with the Pixel 2, will probably be pleased with this turn of events as they can try to grab a bigger share of the top-tier phone market.