According to the WSJ (closed matter for subscribers) and Reuters, Apple is halving the order of components to make iPhones 5. The reason? Demand would be weaker than expected, more specifically in Asia, as reported by the Nikkei (Google translator).
The reduction would have been made in December and involves the manufacture of devices for the first quarter of 2013. It was enough for the company's shares to plummet, they were below US $ 500, but now they have recovered some of the loss; -2.78% at the time of writing this article. In fact, nowadays it seems that any news (good or bad) about Apple makes the shares expensive, incredible!
But back to the subject, I believe that a reduction in the order of components for the iPhone 5 is more than normal. The device was launched in October, a period that was more than complicated for two reasons: first due to the launch itself (huge demand) and second due to the time (end of year), which also has an absurd demand due to Christmas. After these two important moments, it is natural that sales of the device fall a little and stabilize.
To top it off, there is still a rumor that Apple may be releasing a new iPhone in the middle of the year (read about it here: 1, 2), which is sure to affect these component order numbers.
And another: if demand for the iPhone were weak in the world, the company's inventories would be full or, at the very least, they would not be empty. So why is iPhone 5 missing in Brazil? What's more, why hasn't the company started selling the device through the Apple Online Store yet? Not that Brazil is a good parameter to draw conclusions about Apple, but if the demand was so low that the company cut orders in half, it was supposed to be "left over" iPhone 5 on the market, right?
The company, as usual, did not comment on the matter.
(via 9to5Mac, TNW)
