iPhone X Supply Will Be Limited This Year, Will Only Meet Demand in 2018: KGI

While the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus are already up for pre-orders, the anniversary edition iPhone Xwill go on sale on November 3, with pre-orders starting from October 27. Now that availability details are out, KGI Securities’ analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has released a fresh note predicting shipment numbers for the iPhone X for this year, and for next year as well. Kuo claims that the supply for the iPhone X will be very limited in this fiscal year, with shipments only meeting demand fully in 2018.

In his new research note published by MacRumors, Kuo claims that the iPhone X will meet with never before seen demand, but Apple will not be able to supply that much in 2017. The shipments in 2017 are now predicted to be only around 40-45 million units, while in 2018, the shipments will be at 80-90 million units. Kuo suggests that demand for the iPhone X won’t be fully met until the first half of 2018 due to supply constraints. Therefore, you may just be able to pre-order the iPhone X, but shipments may be delayed till next year also.

“We believe the fullscreen 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 says.

He also states that Apple has strategically decided to launch the iPhone X a little but later, so as to not eat up on the sales of the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus completely. When it launches in November, the Gold variant will be very limited reportedly, while the Silver and Space Grey variant will be comparatively more available in quantity at first.

For the first time, the new iPhone X will launch in India at the same time as the US, with pre-orders beginning on October 27, and sales on November 3. The iPhone X 256GB variant is priced in India at Rs. 1,02,000, while the 64GB variant will cost a hefty Rs. 89,000, though it does not come close to the Rs. 1 lakh mark.

The iPhone 8 price in India for the 64GB variant is Rs. 64,000, while the 256GB model costs Rs. 77,000. Similarly, the iPhone 8 Plus price in India has been set as Rs. 73,000 for the base 64GB storage variant, while the model with 256GB storage is Rs. 86,000. The iPhone 8 models’ release date in India is September 29, as part of the second phase of release.