iPhone X Demand Set to Reach 50 Million Units: KGI

Like every other year, this September as well, Apple seems to be the epicentre of the tech world news. The demand for the Cupertino-based company's upcoming iPhone X seems to be gaining momentum. KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has suggested that owing to the strong interest in the handset, the demand for iPhone X can reach 40-50 million units. Separately, Apple has reportedly asked suppliers to slow down the delivery of components for the iPhone X as the company continues to assess the sales performance of the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus.

First taking Kuo's comments into consideration, while the pent-up demand for the iPhone X has been said to be strong but the supply for the handset has been tipped to stay constrained till first half of 2018 - reiterating previous comments, as pointed out in a report by 9To5Mac. One of the primary reasons for the limited production yields for the iPhone X is believed to be the complexity of the TrueDepth camera system, as per the report. The newly introduced notch on the iPhone X admittedly comes with more sensors than its rival smartphones in the market but is contributing to the problems for the handset in achieving mass production.

Moving to the other piece of news, a report by Digitimes citing supply chain sources says that the Cupertino-based company has instructed the suppliers of the components for iPhone X to "withhold part of the component shipments prepared for the production." As per the report, the suppliers are currently shipping components that make around just 40 percent of the originally-planned quantities for the initial production of iPhone X.

Digitimes points out that Apple adopted the same strategy with last year's iPhone 7 as well, where the company is said to have reached 60 percent of the originally planned quantities in initial production and pulled remaining quantities 1-2 months later. As the response towards the new iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus has been lukewarm, it is no surprise that the company is said to be assessing the situation before going full-throttle with iPhone X production. The company will start taking pre-orders for the iPhone X starting October 27 and the first units will be shipped by the company from November 3.