Apple upping iPhone 11 assembly as it outsells iPhone XR

Apple is mulling increasing the production of iPhone 11 by around 1.6 million units as it has already outsold last year's iPhone XR by 15 per cent, media reports said. However, iPhone 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max sales are down 15 per cent compared to the sales of the iPhone XS and XS Max, according to Apple analyst Jun Zhang of Rosenblatt Securities.

Due to the weaker sales, Zhang guesses that the iPhone 11 Pro Max production will be cut by roughly two million units, Apple Insider reported on Thursday. Zhang also estimates iPhone total production volumes to drop year-over-year in the first and second quarter of 2020, but it isn't clear what he's basing his assumptions on.

In Thursday's note, he assumes the volume of the "iPhone SE 2" will be somewhat smaller, with a production of three million units per quarter starting in 2020, the report added.

The Apple analyst further predicted the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro, together, will sell 70 million units before the end of the year.