Apple is historically known for breaking records with its yearly iPhone sales. Unfortunately for the Cupertino tech giant, this might not be the case anymore since its latest iPhone XR is struggling to sale. The reason why this matters to us the consumers is because iPhone XR is Apple’s first budget iPhone and if it doesn’t do well on the market, then Apple will never think about offering affordable devices ever again.
iPhone XR Sales Expectations are Low
It all started when Apple told its third-party hardware manufacturers to stop ramping up the production for iPhone XR. Now, tech analysts such as Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities are now releasing reports in which they lowered the sales expectations for iPhone XR by 20%!
“We have reduced our iPhone XR shipment estimation from 100mn units to 70mn during the new product lifecycle (4Q18–3Q19) for the following reasons: 1) Negative impacts on consumer confidence from the trade war, especially in the Chinese market, 2) expectations from more users for more affordable XR or the dual-camera and narrower bezel design to be provided at the current price level, and 3) competition from Huawei’s Mate 20 series,” said Ming-Chi Kuo.
Apple is Struggling
This might come as a surprise since Apple likes to brag about being the biggest smartphone company in the world, but Huawei is taking over. Huawei sells smartphones that offer similar designs and performances as Apple’s next-generation iPhones, but at a much lower price. Apple fans are finding it more difficult every year to spend more than $1,000 on an iPhone when they can get much better deals from other companies.
Final Thoughts
The fact that iPhone XR is not selling well is bad news for us all. This means that Apple is probably going to scrap all its ideas about making any new affordable devices because the likes of iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max which sells for $1,500 are doing much better on the market.