Apple to Reduce iPhone SE Production Count
Apple introduced the iPhone SE just about three weeks back and the sales also took off almost immediately. This is the first budget smartphone with 5G support from the manufacturer.
However, according to a Nikkei Asia newspaper report and several other reports from Asia, Apple has to cut down on the production count of this smartphone. The manufacturer cites the reasons for the cutdown as increasing inflation and the Ukraine war crisis. Apple has supposedly told many suppliers that the forthcoming quarter of April 2022 to June 2022 would see a decrease in production by 20%. This translates to reducing the smartphone count by two to three million units.
Earlier Forecasts about Lower Sales
Apart from the above two cited reasons for lower production count, analysts claim that the COVID 19 lockdown in various parts of China can also trigger a lower demand for the smartphone, in general, this year.
Noted analyst Ming-Chi Kuo who works for TF Internal Securities was one of the first people to make a reference to the decline in shipping count. He estimated the shipping count for this year to be between 15 million and 20 million units as against the earlier sale of 25 million to 30 million units. Similarly, Eddie Han associated with Isaiah Research in Taiwan predicted a drop in sales by five million units.
Analysts also claim that Apple is facing a couple of challenges with respect to the iPhone SE. One key aspect is that there is nothing new in the smartphone design. It looks very much like the earlier iPhone SE of 2020 that by itself appears to be a refurbished version of the iPhone 8. This could also cause less demand for smartphones. Moreover, the new iPhone SE model has an increase in price from its earlier version by $30.
iPhone SE Not the Only Phone to Have Production Cut
The manufacturer has also instructed suppliers to reduce the count of its iPhone 13 range of smartphones by two million from the original planned production. The justification given for this is seasonal demand fluctuation. Similarly, according to the data collected from Counterpoint Research, Apple reported sales of 76.8 million AirPods units last year. However, the manufacturer expects lukewarm demands for the earphones in 2022 and plans to dip lower the order count for the year by more than 10 million units.
