=Apple (AAPL) : iPhone X demand concerns

Shares of Apple (AAPL) and iPhone chip suppliers fell Tuesday on reports that iPhone X demand is flagging, less than two months after its debut.

• Suppliers (SMH): LITE -3% SWKS -2.8%, QRVO -2.5%, CRUS -2.4%, FNSR -2%, MU -1.8%, AVGO -1.6%, JBL -1.5%, AMAT -1.3%, XLNX -0.6%, OLED -1%, TXN -0.3% STMicroelectronics (STM 21.97, -0.28)
• Apple will slash its sales forecast for the iPhone X in the quarter to 30 million units, the Taiwanese newspaper said on Monday, citing unidentified sources — down from what it said was an initial plan of 50 million units.
• Apple has not publicly disclosed quarterly sales targets for the iPhone X, which went on sale in November.
• JL Warren Capital and Sinolink Securities cut their iPhone shipment forecasts for the calendar first quarter of 2018, citing weak demand for the flagship iPhone X exiting the holiday sales quarter, Bloomberg reported Monday.  U.S.-based JL Warren Capital is predicting shipments of just 25 million units as consumers balk at the "high price point and a lack of interesting innovations."
• A Reuters analysis of Chinese social media shows that interest in the iPhone X — which spiked around its launch — has not kept pace with the highly popular iPhone 6 released in 2014, which helped then drive massive sales for Apple in China.  There were only 4.97 million Weibo posts mentioning the iPhone X so far in December compared with over 11 million for the iPhone 6 in the equivalent period in 2014, the analysis showed.