Nikkei Asia claims that Apple has told some of its suppliers to cut production of components for its newly launched iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max, after soaring memory chip costs forced price increases that have dampened consumer demand.
MacDailyNews Take: Ooh, “dampened.” So scary!
Nikkei Asia continues:
The iPhone 18 Pro was launched in September, but its reception from consumers is reported to be cooler than expected, with a higher price tag a factor.
Suppliers blame the premium handsets’ price hike for weaker consumer uptake. Apple has turned more conservative on shipments since early September, with component orders for October cut by at least 15% — and, by some accounts, 15% to 20% — versus what Apple originally requested, according to multiple people familiar with the matter.
“In October alone, we are seeing orders from Apple reducing by 15% to 20% for both the premium models; we don’t know how things would develop from here,” said one executive-level source.
MacDailyNews Take: Anonymous supply-chain whisperers. The gold standard of worthless “channel checks.”
Nikkei Asia continues:
The order cuts will affect production volumes for some, but not all, suppliers in October due to differing production lead times. It is not immediately clear whether Apple will make further adjustments from November onward.
Another supply-chain manager said demand is “not as strong as previous years when all the new models are introduced all together.” Apple launched the iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max, and the foldable iPhone Duo in September, and is holding the base iPhone 18 and an updated iPhone Air for early 2027.
Still, the suppliers say the staggered launch alone does not account for the lower demand. One source added that they expect a “similar fate” for the iPhone Duo after it ships.
Apple raised prices on the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max by $100 versus their predecessors. Nikkei notes that, even if unit demand is softer, that higher price means the impact “won’t immediately translate to lower revenue for Apple.”
MacDailyNews Take: Oh. So it’s a mix adjustment, a staggered launch, a memory-cost squeeze, and a price increase — and revenue may not even take a hit. But how is that going to talk down the stock?
MacDailyNews Take: For how many years will suckers fall for this?
In what has become the Nikkei’s annual shocker: Apple is adjusting production after launch. Cue the horror!
Same byline. Same “exclusive.” Same unnamed suppliers. Same leap from “some component orders for October are lower than an earlier internal plan” to “soft demand.” No sell-through. No Apple statement. No distinction between a product-mix tweak, a launch-calendar change, and an actual demand collapse. Just conjecture, estimates, and FUD, dressed up as “news.”
This report — as with so many of Nikkei’s Apple-related reports — smacks of a plant designed to depress the price of AAPL. Plain and simple. And Nikkei remains the preferred place to do it. Last October it was “drastically cutting” iPhone Air orders while the rest of the iPhone 17 lineup was strong enough that the overall forecast barely moved. Before that it was the iPhone X “halved,” the XR “disappointing,” the 6s “slashed 30%.” The pattern is older than some of the people trading on it.
Even if a particular data point were factual, it would be impossible to accurately interpret that data point as a proxy for the overall business. There is an inordinately long list of things that would make any single supplier anecdote not a great read on what’s going on.
Don’t panic from the FUD, profit from it!
Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to lose money in the stock market. History lesson below. — MacDailyNews, December 30, 2016
• Right on cue, yet another misleading ‘Apple slashes iPhone production’ story from Nikkei – October 22, 2025
• Another January, another misleading iPhone supply cuts story from Nikkei – January 29, 2018
• Apple stock drops after Nikkei report of iPhone X production cut – January 29, 2018
• Reports of Apple cutting iPhone X orders make no sense – January 2, 2018
• Apple stock tumbles on one poorly-sourced report of low iPhone X demand – December 26, 2017
• Apple and suppliers shares drop on report of weak iPhone X demand – December 26, 2017
• Nikkei: Apple to decrease iPhone production 10% in first quarter of 2017 – December 30, 2016
• Nikkei proclaims ‘iPhone 7’ Dead On Arrival; bemoans Apple’s ‘lack of innovation’ – May 12, 2016
• Japan’s Nikkei, The Wall Street Journal blow it, get iPhone demand story all wrong – January 16, 2013
• Did Apple reduce 4-inch Retina display orders due to improving yields? – January 15, 2013
• Analysts: iPhone 5 demand ‘robust;’ ignore the non-news noise – January 15, 2013
• Apple iPhone suppliers decline on report orders cut by 50% – January 15, 2013
• Apple swoon erases $17 billion from stock market – January 14, 2013
• Apple iPhone 5 production cut signaling a new product release? – January 14, 2013
• Apple drops to 11-month low on old reports of component cuts – January 14, 2013
• The strange math of Apple’s alleged massive iPhone 5 component cuts – January 14, 2013
• UBS analysts: Apple iPhone component order reduction ‘old news’ – January 14, 2013
• Apple pulls down U.S. futures – January 14, 2013
• Apple shares drop below $500 after reported cuts in iPhone 5 parts orders – January 14, 2013
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A this Fall launch was quite different than previous years – changes to supply chain seem reasonable, but Nikkie’s overly simplistic answer? No. There is nuance to this. Let’s take a look at what “could” be going on (if anything is going on at all):
– Some have not immediately sprung to upgrade their previous Pro models due to $100 price increase? Does $100 stop Pro buyers? Not typically. Hasn’t in the past?… Maybe a scant few… Thus, Nikkei’s reasoning is nothing more than a massive, simplistic, assumption with no survey’s or research behind it. Let’s chalk this one up to MDN’s FUD rational as accurate until proven otherwise.
– Some are waiting on the iPhone Duo? Of course. Is Apple going to sell iPhone Duo’s? Yes. So where do those buyers come from? The mass majority are going to be from current iPhone owners, and a wide margin of them iPhone Pro owners. It’s not like Samsung Fold owners are all switching over, and that’s where Apple’s iPhone Duo market solely comes from. Rather, it will upsell a lot of iPhone Pro owners purchase decisions. That will have some impact on iPhone Pro sales. Apple is completely fine with that, and so should investors be.
– More nuance: iPhone 18 didn’t launch, and that brings in millions and millions of people from now – Christmas into stores and online to purchase them. But now? Since it didn’t launch those would-be buyers aren’t coming in to upgrade – and some of them, not a lot of them, but some of them – splurge and upgrade to a Pro model. Take those Pro sales off the table.
Add everything up, and you “could” get cut in iPhone 18 Pro demand.
However, Apple knows all this and far more, and their production projections have taken all this into account.
Likely: By the end of the year, iPhone 18 Pro+Max and Duo iPhones sold, will be greater than last year’s iPhone 17 Pro+Max sales, and that’s what Apple’s after – along with a lot more revenue flowing in from iPhone Duo.