According to a supply-chain source in Taiwan, Apple has reportedly slowed iPhone 8 production by approximately 50% due to low consumer demand, causing AAPL stock to drop by 1.5% in pre-market trading and marking the first time in the iPhone’s history that production has been cut so early in the cycle.
The low consumer demand is likely due to the upcoming release of the iPhone X, Apple’s 10th anniversary iPhone release. US carrier AT&T publicly claimed last week that iPhone 8 sales are 900k down on those of the iPhone 7 last year, and a recent carrier store survey reports that the year-old iPhone 7 is currently outselling the iPhone 8.
The iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus closely mimic the design of the older generation iPhone 7, with Apple introducing a new back glass design, with a polished aluminium band and new silver, space gray, and a “beautiful new gold finish”.
Both the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus feature a Retina HD display and improved water resistance, with True Tone displays previously only seen on the iPad Pro line for white image balancing. Apple has introduced a new custom designed A11 Bionic processor for the iPhone 8, with the devices featuring a new 12MP camera sensor and less noise. iPhone 8 Plus has two new sensors and a new feature called Portrait Lighting. Portrait mode will ship in beta and create professional lighting effects in portrait shots using depth and machine learning.