Apple cuts iPhone 18 Pro orders after soft demand, Nikkei reports

Nikkei says Apple told suppliers to scale back production of the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max, pointing to rising memory chip costs as the cause.

Apple has told some suppliers to cut production of components for the iPhone 18 Pro and the iPhone 18 Pro Max, Nikkei Asia reported. The outlet said the cut follows weaker-than-expected demand for the devices.

Nikkei attributed the softer demand to a rise in memory chip costs, which pushed up prices for the phones and dampened consumer interest, rather than to competition or any single region.

The report adds to signs of a slower start for the line. GF Securities analyst Jeff Pu had already cut his production estimate for the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max to 72 million units in September, citing constraints from the phones' new variable aperture camera system, and pointed to limited spec upgrades and higher prices on larger storage tiers as reasons for the weak early demand he was tracking. Nikkei had separately reported in January that the bill of materials for the iPhone 18 Pro could rise by more than $100, driven mainly by the new A20 chip and a baseline 12GB of RAM.

An order cut on the Pro line is a more direct signal of demand than September's launch coverage, which focused on pricing, chip specifications and the $1,999 Duo model rather than on sell-through. The standard Pro carries the bulk of iPhone volume, so weakness there matters more for near-term unit trends than the premium Duo segmentation, which was already seen as unlikely to move the installed base. It also comes alongside unresolved friction with regulators in India over warranty costs and gaps in AI features in China and the EU, adding to a run of headwinds rather than offsetting them. The cut is a supply-chain signal from Nikkei, not guidance from Apple itself, so its reliability will depend on confirmation through shipment or revenue data in coming quarters.