Apple won't achieve complete supply-demand equilibrium until next year: Ming-Chi Kuo

Ming-Chi Kuo, an analyst from KGI Securities, said in a report that Apple’s iPhone X won’t achieve complete supply-demand equilibrium until next year. [caption id=“attachment_4040627” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Apple’s Schiller introduces the iPhone X during the launch event. Reuters[/caption] According to a report on MacRumors the demand of the **iPhone X** won’t be fulfilled until the first quarter of 2018. Supply constraint is the reason behind the company not achieving the balance. He said “We believe the full screen design and facial recognition features will drive replacement demand for the iPhone X. However, due to supply constraints, we expect market demand won’t be fully met before 1H18. We revise down our forecast for 2017F iPhone X shipments from 45-50 million to around 40 million units, but we therefore revise up our 2018 iPhone X shipment estimate to 80-90 million units.” Kuo also mentioned the reason behind why the iPhone won’t be available for sale on time is because the company doesn’t want to “cannibalise” the sales of iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus. He also said that the production of iPhone X is less than 10,000 units per day, but might increase after the supply-chain stabilises. Apple launched its three phones iPhone 8, Phone 8 Plus and iPhone X in an event on 12 September. The pre-orders for iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus has started and the phones will be shipped from 29 September but the iPhone X is expected to be available for sale from 3 November. The iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 plus are priced at $699 (Rs 64,000 in India) and $799 (Rs 73,000 in India) respectively, whereas the iPhone X is priced at $999 (Rs 89,000 in India) dollars.