Apple reportedly cancels iPhone XR production boost
Foxconn and Pegatron have been told to cut down production line plans, a report says.
The iPhone XR may not be selling as well as Apple hoped.
Apple told its main phone assemblers, Foxconn and Pegatron, to stop plans for additional iPhone XR production lines, a report said Monday.
The order to the two Taiwanese companies suggests that demand for cheapest of the 2018 iPhones hasn't lived up to Apple's expectations, according to Nikkei, which cited anonymous sources.
"For the Foxconn side, it first prepared nearly 60 assembly lines for Apple's XR model, but recently uses only around 45 production lines as its top customer said it does not need to manufacture that many by now," a source told the Japanese financial paper.
That'd mean the company would make around 100,000 fewer XRs, the report noted, while a source within Pegatron said "XR production is not reaching its maximum capacity now."
Apple reportedly asked smaller Taiwanese assembler Wistron to prepare for rush orders, but it won't be getting XR orders this holiday season.
However, Apple has ordered around 5 million more iPhone 8 models (mostly made by Pegatron) and iPhone 8 Plus models (primarily from Foxconn), bringing the order for those to 25 million, the report said. The two 2017 iPhone 8 models start at $600 and $700 respectively, compared to $750 for the XR.
The Cupertino, California, company said last week it didn't sell as many iPhones as analysts expected, and noted that it would no longer detail unit sales for iPhones, iPads and Macs.
Neither Apple, Foxconn, Pegatron nor Wistron immediately responded to requests for comment.
Pay up, folks: Apple's higher iPhone, iPad Pro prices are the new normal.
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