A Pegatron Corporation factory in Shanghai has shut down a part of its iPhone 6s assembly line in addition to scaling back some of its workforce, due to dwindling sales of the iPhone 6s, according to the IT Times.
An IT Times reporter stationed outside the factory witnessed four employees walk out with their belongings within 10 minutes of waiting out the front. One of the employees told the IT Times that Pegatron stopped recruiting in mid-October, with part of the iPhone 6s assembly line having been dismantled. “Some of the employees who worked on the iPhone 6s were asked to either relocate to Pegatron’s parent company in Kunshan, Suzhou, Jiangsu province, or face termination,” a staffer said.
Dealers from Buynow.com.cn and PCOnline.com.cn have remarked that sales of the iPhone 6s have been slower than the iPhone 6, according to the IT Times. Because sales of the iPhone 6s have not been going as well as expected, some distributors have slashed prices. One distributor told the IT Times that she shaved as much as RMB 100 (USD 15.8) from the price of a 16GB iPhone 6s. Another distributor said he’d marked it down by as much as RMB 400 (USD 63.3), explaining that profit margins for iPhones are usually about RMB 500 (USD 79).
Apple’s latest earnings report indicated a strong quarterly profit of 31% with sales of 48.04 million iPhones globally, exceeding the 39.27 million phones sold for the same period last year.