Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has been keeping his finger on the pulse of Apple component suppliers and that pulse is slowing – the total expected shipments of the iPhone XR have been revised down by as much as 30%.

The early prediction was for 100 million units in four quarters (from Q4 2018 to Q3 2019). The new forecast is for 70 million, of which about half will be shipped this quarter (30-35 million). The numbers for the first two quarters of 2019 have been decreased by 25-30% to 20-25 million and 10-15 million for Q1 and Q2 respectively.

Consumers in general are not as keen on the XR as Apple thought they would be. Potential buyers in China were reportedly expecting a lower price or at least goodies like a dual camera and a slimmer frame (weren't we all?).

With the iPhone XR being as it is, the Huawei Mate 20 series is providing an alluring alternative, which is hurting Apple’s potential sales.

The poor performance of the XR is lowering the prediction for total iPhone shipments as well, which are expected to be down 15-20% in the first quarter of 2019 compared to this year’s Q1. Shipments of older iPhone models are expected to pick up some of the slack, but not all of it.

All of this is starting to worry component suppliers, which will see their orders slashed in anticipation of the lower shipments. This will affect their bottom line for the next couple of quarters.

Source: gsmarena