Apple cuts off iPhone orders by 20% due to low demand for iPhone 12 mini: Report says
Apple cut orders for iPhones by 20%, due to decreased demand for its smallest iPhone 12 mini model according to a report from Nikkei on Wednesday.
Apple’s new iPhones are still in high demand by the public. According to Nikkei, the company plans to build 230 million iPhones in 2021, an increase of 11.6% from 2020. But, the iPhone 12 mini isn’t selling as satisfactorily as expected because consumers are gravitating to either the older iPhone 11 which has a bigger screen, the larger iPhone 12, or the more premium iPhone 12 Pro models.
Shares were up more than 4% on Tuesday but the company shares were slightly negative in premarket trading on Wednesday.
The consumer sentiment seems to have reflected reviews of the phones when they first launched in November. CNBC, for example, said that the iPhone 12 mini is just a smaller version of the iPhone 12 with poorer battery life. And while it’s exciting for people with smaller hands, most consumers should just spend the extra $100 for the iPhone 12, which has better battery life and a larger screen.
The iPhone 12 models were highly successful for Apple. However, Apple no longer reveals how many iPhones are sold in each quarter. In January, research firm IDC said “Apple shipped 90.1 million devices during the fourth quarter of 2020, the “highest shipment volume from a vendor in a single quarter,” and this helped Apple to reach the top phone seller in the world, ahead of Samsung for the quarter. Apple iPhone revenue for the quarter was up 17% year-over-year.
That momentum behind the iPhone 12 brought more than $100 billion in a quarter for the first time in the company’s history helped Apple book a record holiday quarter in 2020. Apple was not immediately available to comment.
