Shares of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) were down nearly 2.5% in morning trading Tuesday after new reports suggested that the company is set to slash its sales forecast for the iPhone X in the current quarter.
According to Taiwanese newspaper Economic Daily, demand for the special-edition smartphone has been significantly softer than expected, and Apple will reportedly lower its quarterly sales projections for the device to 30 million units from 50 million units.
Meanwhile, several market analysts have also warned of weak demand for the iPhone X. China’s Sinolink Securities said that the phone’s high price would dampen enthusiasm for the product, while JL Warren Capital cited the model’s “high price point and a lack of interesting innovations” for its own 25 million unit sales forecast.
Apple shares opened nearly 3% lower on Tuesday morning, putting the stock on pace for its worst trading period since Aug. 10. However, shares rebounded slightly after touching an intraday low of $169.68 and were down just 2.3% by 10:30 EST.
And despite recent reports of soft iPhone X sales, others remain relatively optimistic about the phone. In a note last week, Loop Capital called for unit sales of 40 million to 45 million in the first calendar quarter of 2018, up from an estimated 30 million to 35 million units in the holiday quarter.
“Our work continues to suggest the March and June quarters will have a significant amount of iPhone X make-up shipments,” the firm wrote. Loop Capital’s projections are relatively in-line with Jefferies’ forecast of 40 million units sold in the first quarter.
Still, a recent Reuters analysis of Chinese social media indicated that interest in the iPhone X is down in one of Apple’s key geographical regions. According to the report, there were only 4.97 million posts on Weibo mentioning the model during December, down significantly from the 11 million posts mentioning the iPhone 6 in 2014.
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