Apple to Cut iPhone 6s Production by 30% in Q1 2016?

Customers looking to pick up one of Apple’s anticipated “iPhone 7 Plus” handsets later this year will, according to a recent report, have a couple of additional benefits over owners of the smaller “iPhone 7” device.

Toward the end of past year, many analysts began predicting that sales of Apple’s best-selling product would slump in 2016, based on supply chain issues and weaker demand especially from saturated, developed markets.

According to the Nikkei Apple will cut production of its latest iPhone models by about 30 percent in the January-March quarter as shedloads sit in storerooms unsold.

Nikkei’s report is the latest in a series of gloomy projections that predicted a drop in iPhone sales in the coming months. The iPhone 7 Plus is the larger iPhone from the Apple stable that features a 5.5 inch display. It already started in that area of its business with the rollout of the Apple Pay mobile payment system to China, its iPhone Upgrade installment program and the launch of its Apple Music subscription streaming service. What’s more, the provincial government is giving the company formally known as Hon Hai more than $12 million in subsidies to limit any layoffs. Audio out will most likely be handled via the Lightning port and Bluetooth.

Manufacturers such as Japan Display, Sharp and LG Display will see a drop in shipments of their liquid crystal display panels, along with Sony, who provides the image sensors.

‘Apple has been gaining significant market share in pretty much every region, and I’m not seeing a global slowdown, ‘ Moorhead said.

Production should return to normal in the April-June quarter, Nikkei said, once the inventory adjustment is complete. Since early December, their estimates have been cut by about a third of the analysts monitored by Thomson Reuters. Apple has turned its attention to the profitable China market, where sales of iPhones have grown 65 percent year-on-year.