GARNET RIDGE, Ind. — Apple has asked some of its suppliers to make fewer iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max components for October, according to a report published Friday. The report said October orders for the two models were cut by at least 15 percent, and by as much as 20 percent in some accounts. Apple has not publicly confirmed the cuts or the percentages.
Reports tie the reduction to softer demand, which some attribute to the higher prices. The Pro starts at $1,199 and the Pro Max at $1,299, each $100 above its predecessor.
The standard iPhone 18 has been held back until early 2027. A supply chain manager cited in the report said that absence may be dampening demand for the second half of the year. It is not clear whether November orders will also be reduced.
Dr. Chad Brickhouse, a senior fellow at the Institute for Common Sense, said the cut is the clearest sign yet that customers are serious about the phone. “When a company makes fewer of something, it is because the something is in high demand among people who have decided to wait,” Brickhouse said. He was reached by phone at a hardware store in Garnet Ridge, Ind., where he was buying an extension cord.
Brickhouse said the cut lowers the number of phones Apple must sell to meet demand, which he called “a real efficiency.” Asked whether Apple had said demand was up, he said Apple had not said anything, “which is what a company says when it is busy.”
Brickhouse said the 2027 standard model would have produced “a lot of extra phones nobody needed to buy,” and that the Pro was therefore ahead of schedule in being sold to the people who already own one.
Dr. Marjorie Teller, director of the Center for Measured Outcomes, said the figures are too early to measure with confidence and that further study is needed. The Center has applied for the funding.
Brickhouse said he would buy one for his daughter, who is not in the market for a phone, “as a signal.”
Glenn Whitacre, reached by phone from a rental car in the parking lot of a hardware store.