Apple Reportedly Cuts iPhone X Production Targets After Disappointing Holiday Sales

It would seem that the iPhone X is not turning out to be the hit that Apple was hoping it would be. The most expensive phone in Apple’s mass consumer lineup apparently did so horribly during the holiday season, the Cupertino firm is now reducing its production target by half. This is devastating, both for Apple and for its suppliers.

It’s no secret that Apple has been struggling to maintain its lead in the smartphone industry, with the iPhone featuring fewer and fewer surprises with each iteration. According to a report by the Japanese financial publication Nikkei, the Cupertino firm is off to a particularly bad start in 2018.

Apple had reportedly notified suppliers about the target cuts already, reducing the number of iPhone X units produced from the previous 40 million to just 20 million for Q1 of this year. The company had expected great sales performance from three of its most profitable markets; U.S., Europe, and China. Unfortunately for the firm, this simply did not happen.

The biggest contributor to the sluggish performance of the iPhone X is its price. Starting at $999 in many areas, even the base model of the device can get incredibly expensive. The vast majority of consumers simply could not justify getting one for themselves, not with so many other excellent handsets in the market.

With regards to its iPhone 7 and iPhone 8 models, Apple is reportedly maintaining the 30 million production targets for all the units that fall under those categories. Even so, suppliers will see multi-billion dollar bruises to their own bottom line because of this development, 9to5Mac reports.

One of the ways that experts and publications have suggested for Apple to cut down on costs is to go back to LCD screens instead of OLED. This could help boost sales for the iPhone X and iPhone 8, which is also reportedly slow.