The sluggish iPhone demand hits partners hard; the fourth supplier lowers its earnings outlook

As speculation about lower-than-expected iPhone demand continues to weigh on Apple Inc.'s (AAPL) stock price, another Apple supplier today lowered its earnings forecast.

So far in the space of a week, four major iPhone component suppliers have lowered their earnings forecasts.

The Austrian parts supplier AMS lowered its earnings forecast today. AMS lowered its fourth-quarter revenue forecast from $570 million to $610 million given last month to $480 million to $520 million.

AMS, a supplier of ambient light sensors for iPhones, said the lowering of its earnings outlook was mainly due to "a recent decline in orders from a major consumer customer."

In addition to AMS, three other iPhone component suppliers lowered their performance expectations within a week, namely Japan Display, Lumentum and Qorvo. These three companies supply Apple with iPhone screens, Face ID 3D sensors and RF chips respectively.

There are signs that the market demand for the new generation of iPhones is lower than expected. Last week, it was reported that Apple had informed Foxconn and other contract manufacturers to suspend plans to increase iPhone XR production lines.

People familiar with the matter said Foxconn will produce about 100,000 fewer iPhone XRs per day, 20% to 25% lower than the initial optimistic expectations.

In addition to Foxconn, another contract manufacturer, Pegatron, is facing a similar situation and has suspended plans to increase production, awaiting further instructions from Apple.

Contract manufacturer Wistron is currently on standby, but people familiar with the matter said it will not receive iPhone XR orders during this year's Christmas shopping season.

On Monday, JPMorgan analyst Samik Chatterjee lowered his earnings forecast for Apple, lowering his 2018 iPhone sales forecast for Apple from 216 million to 214 million units, and lowering his 2019 sales forecast from 218 million to 208 million units.

In addition, Wall Street investment bank Longbow Research also released a report saying that iPhone demand in the Chinese market is at risk of decline, because in October, the number of iPhone searches on Baidu search engine dropped significantly.