Leading Analyst Drops 2018 iPhone Sales Estimate by 5 Million Units

So far, 2018 hasn’t been an easy year for Apple, with countless lawsuits and criticisms stacking up against it as a result of iPhone battery throttling. However, things could get worse for the company.

According to a leading Wall Street analyst, Apple is expected to ship less mobile devices than previously thought in 2018.

Longbow Research, which keeps an eye on the financial performance of leading companies, has downgraded Apple’s stock amid fears that iPhone sales may begin to slip.

As reported by CNBC, the company has lowered its forecast for Apple shares. For years, the company’s shares have been in the higher category, but they’ve been shifted to neutral.

The analyst firm predicts that Apple will sell less iPhones in the 2018 financial year. Shawn Harrison, who works at Longbow, issued a note to clients confirming the news.

Harrison didn’t exactly slam Apple and cast its future into a cloud of doom, though. Instead, he explained that the analyst firm is “seeing only a good, not great iPhone cycle”.

“Apple found iPhone price elasticity with the introduction of the X blunting some demand. Reception of the iPhone 8/8Plus was lukewarm with Apple shifting production back toward the iPhone 7 as a result,” he said.

He expects Apple to ship 233 million handsets this year, as opposed to the previous estimate of 238 million. Other analysts predict that the firm will sell around 239 million iPhones.

Shares took a tumble of 0.3 percent upon the release of the report on Wednesday. Nomura Instinet was the last analyst firm to downgrade Apple, switching to neutral from buy on December 19th.