Analyst Paints Gloomy Picture For Apple’s iPhone Holiday Shipments – SlashGear

In the days following the violent protests at the Zhengzhou plant, several reports talked about its potential impact on iPhone shipments. Bloomberg estimated that Apple could end up with a little over 6 million lesser iPhones in 2022 on account of these disruptions. However, a new report by noted Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo paints a much grimmer picture. Kuo says he is lowering his estimates for Q4 2022 iPhone shipments by more than 20%. In sheer numbers, this would mean that Apple may end up shipping anywhere between 15-20 million lesser iPhones in Q4 2022, compared to last year. Kuo had earlier talked about the likelihood of Apple shipping anywhere between 80-85 million iPhones in the last quarter of 2022. However, he has lowered that number to 70-75 million units because of recent developments.

In his research note, Kuo also adds that the Zhengzhou iPhone plant could only operate at 20% capacity during the entirety of November 2022. However, he expects Apple and Foxconn to speed up the pace of manufacturing and reach at least 35-40% capacity by the end of December. Kuo also estimates Apple’s revenue figures will take a hit on account of this iPhone shortage. While issues at Foxconn’s Zhengzhou plant may draw to a close in the next few months, Apple is increasingly looking at countries other than China as potential iPhone-manufacturing locations. One of these nations happens to be India — where Apple already operates two iPhone factories. If Apple’s plans succeed, the company could rely on manufacturing facilities in India to handle 25% of the global iPhone production by 2025.