14 DAY TRIAL // Apple is working at full pace to address iPhone X supply issues, and all these efforts are going to pay off in the 2017 holiday quarter when the company should sell between 22 million and 24 million units.
This is what well-known Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said in a new note to investors, projecting iPhone X production to reach 25 million to 27 million units by year-end, with Foxconn to convert iPhone 8 Plus manufacturing lines to the anniversary model in order to help boost supply.
Production will continue to grow into 2018, Kuo explains, and it will grow as much as 45 percent quarter-on-quarter, leading to growing figures in early 2018. Previously, Kuo said demand for the iPhone X would peak in the first quarter of 2018 following Apple managing to align production with orders in late 2017.
But what’s interesting is that the analyst believes one of the reasons for increasing iPhone X sales is more people dropping their initial concerns over the device, including the lack of a home button. The iPhone X embraced an edge-to-edge display without a home button, but using facial recognition and advanced gesture support for navigation and input.
iPhone 8 going down
Kuo says that with the main iPhone X problems no longer a roadblock for those planning to buy the device, more customers would purchase the anniversary model, with a substantial number of existing Apple users owning a previous-generation iPhone to be looking into this version.
It goes without saying that a major growth of the iPhone X will lead to dropping sales of the iPhone 8, and Kuo says production of this model will drop by 50 to 60 percent in the first quarter of the year. This is because the iPhone 8 doesn’t bring as many big changes as the iPhone X and potential buyers see little reason not to go with the latter.
The iPhone 8, however, is suffering from even lower demand as its bigger sibling the iPhone 8 Plus, as the 5.5-inch model has several exclusive features, including a dual-camera system.
At this point, shipping times for the iPhone X are still estimated for December, but with more units being manufactured, you should soon be able to walk into an Apple Store and get the device regardless the region.