IPhone X over? Apple stock tanks on sales fears. Shares of Apple fell Friday on fresh concerns that people aren’t buying enough of its flagship device, the iPhone.
On Thursday, C. C. Wei, the co-CEO and president of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, said the company’s sales this year would land on the lower end of its forecast because of uncertainty in cryptocurrency mining demand and “smartphone weakness.” TSMC makes processing chips for use in the iPhone.
The weakness prompted Neil Campling of Mirabaud Securities to suggest Apple could ditch the iPhone X, the company’s most expensive iPhone, by the end of the year.
The iPhone X. (Photo: Apple)
With declines in iPhone X orders and record-high inventories at Taiwan Semi, this could mean “iPhone X is dead,” Campling said, as reported by CNBC.
Shares of Apple (AAPL) were down more than 4%, weigh on the overall stock market.
Sales of the iPhone X have come in lower than Wall Street analysts projected. The device starts at $999, one of the most expensive smartphones on the market.
Last month, Goldman Sachs and RBC Capital Markets lowered estimates for iPhone sales for the first half of the year.
However, Apple could compensate for weaker iPhone sales with a surge in its growing services such as Apple Music and the App Store.
“The business itself should have a higher multiple than hardware,” said RBC analyst Amit Daryanani.
Apple will report second quarter earnings on May 1.
