Apple cuts production orders for all three new iPhone models

IPhone maker Apple Inc (AAPL.O) has cut production orders in recent weeks for all three iPhone models launched in September, media reported, citing sources. A lower-thanexpected demand for the new iPhones and Apple's decision to offer more models has made it more difficult to anticipate the number of components and handsets the company needs, according to the paper.

Apple shocked investors a few weeks ago with a lowerthan-expected sales forecast for the Christmas quarter, prompting certain suppliers to issue warnings that pointed to weakness in new iPhone sales. Forecasts have been particularly problematic for iPhone XR with Apple cutting its production plan by up to a third of the nearly 70 million units some suppliers had been asked to produce between September and February, the paper said.

As recently as last week, Apple informed several suppliers that it lowered its production plan again for iPhone XR, the Journal reported. The com- pany started selling its latest phone generation, the iPhone XS and XS Max, in September and the XR model in October. Apple did not respond to a request for comment outside regular business hours.

Apple Inc said Thursday that it will resume selling older iPhone models in its stores in Germany after they were banned last year, but only with chips from Qualcomm Inc, which is in a global legal battle against the Cupertino company.

Apple said it had "no choice" but to stop using some chips from Intel Corp in iPhones headed to Germany in order to comply with a patent infringement lawsuit Qualcomm won against Apple there in December.

Qualcomm, the world's biggest supplier of mobile chips, sued Apple in Germany alleging that some older iPhone 7 and iPhone 8 models violated Qualcomm patents around so-called envelope tracking, a feature that helps mobile phones save battery power while sending and receiving wireless signals. The alleged patent violation stemmed not from Intel chips but yet another Apple supplier - Qorvo Inc - whose chip was only present in older phones with Intel modems.

The court sided with Qualcomm and banned sales of some iPhone models that used Intel modem chips, leading Apple to pull the devices from its 15 retail stories in Germany and its online store in the country.

The ban was a victory in Qualcomm's legal conflict with Apple.

The iPhone maker has alleged that Qualcomm engaged in illegal patent licensing practices to protect a monopoly on so-called modem chips, which connect mobile phones to wireless data networks. Qualcomm has in turn alleged that Apple has infringed its patents. A major case between the two goes to trial in the United States in April.

Apple began phasing in Intel's modem chips in 2016 after years of using chips exclusively from Qualcomm. In last year's iPhone models, Apple dropped Qualcomm's chips completely in favor of Intel's.