The negative news about Apple's iPhone demand just keeps coming. After shares of the company's stock finished in the red this year for the first time since 2008, a new report now indicates that component orders for the Apple iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus have been cut by a sizeable 30 percent due to slowing demand for the devices heading into the new year.
The report states that Apple was overly bullish on sales expectations for the devices in the December quarter, and as a result, a slew of available iPhones remain on the shelves. It also indicates that Apple initially instructed its suppliers to keep pushing out new handsets at the same pace as that of the 2014 iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, based on that year's record breaking sales of the new devices.
Another recent report signaled a change in fortunes for the company's flagship smartphones, as Foxconn, the company that manufactures the iPhones for Apple in China, had begun reducing overtime for workers involved in the handsets' production.
The new report, which comes from a highly reliable source, the Nikkei Asian Review, only solidifies other recent rumors of a slowdown in demand for Apple smartphones. In addition, top analysts at FBR & Co., RBC Capital Markets, J.P. Morgan and Morgan Stanley have all recently reduced their estimates for iPhone sales.
The reduced demand appears to be at least in part due to a wider trend that will continue to affect other smartphone manufacturers, as Samsung, Apple's biggest competitor, has recently acknowledged it expects a reduction in smartphone sales in 2016.
Still, Apple has always been one to rise above whatever current demand or economic issues were dictating the fates of its rivals by differentiating itself through superior technological and design innovation. While the company was once able to briefly rest on its laurels in the odd numbered years that brought us the "s" models, it appears that some consumers are no longer willing to shell out the cost of a new handset for a phone that only includes incremental improvements (in the most recent case, 3D Touch and upgraded camera capabilities). Perhaps it's time for Apple to rethink the two-year cycle and bring something really worthwhile to the table every time, in order to entice consumers on the fence not to wait until next year.
