According to Nikkei with reference to some suppliers of Apple products closely connected with the corporation, Apple is going to slow down the production of iPhone this quarter – April through June 2016. They say that the major reason why Apple decided to cut the production is the fact that iPhone sales are slowing down.
To be more specific, it is all about iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus sales, which have been underway since the fall of 2015. The sales are going down steadily, which is why Apple is forced to start shrinking the production to avoid oversupply and unnecessary losses. On top of that, Apple already cut the production by 30% in Q1 2016 relative to the same reporting period 12 months before. Anyways, the current sales volume is far from being stunning. At the same time, Apple is not planning to make up for the iPhone 6/6 Plus production cuts at the expense iPhone SE, which was introduced in March 2016.
According to the stats provided by Gartner, an international research company, the sales dropped over the last couple of months of 2015. This is the first major sales drop ever since iPhone was introduced for the first time. To be more specific, the amount of iPhones sold over the reporting period dropped by 4,4% from 74,8 million units all the way down to 71,5 million units. This made Apple see its share in the global market of smartphones drop from 20,4% down to 17,7%.
Meanwhile, international experts doubt that iPhone SE is going to be a huge success worldwide. Investors didn’t seem to be super excited with the presentation of iPhone SE. Even though they admit that iPhone SE can win a certain market niche, it still cannot be called a bestseller. Some experts share this standpoint. For instance, managers at IDC Asia Pacific also assume that iPhone SE is not going to be a super hit in Asia and emerging markets even despite the price of $399 per device. The thing is that China, India and other emerging markets out there cannot boast a lot of wealthy people ready to purchase brand-new phones. Most of them purchase cheap or even used devices. Still, iPhone SE is believed to gain a certain share in the market niche.
