October 17, 2017 - 12:46 AMT
Foxconn ships first batch of just 46,000 iPhone X phones: report

Foxconn Electronics (Hon Hai) has started shipping iPhone X devices, with the first batch of 46,500 units already being shipped out from Zhengzhou and Shanghai to the Netherlands and United Arab Emirates (UAE), respectively, according to a China-based Xinhuanet.com report.

Apple said previously that it will begin to take pre-sale orders for iPhone X on October 27 and start delivering the devices on November 3.

However, the first-batch shipments of the iPhone X units were much lower than the previous iPhone models, which apparently will make the iPhone X one of the most difficult-to-find smartphone these days, according to a Chinese-language Commercial Times report.

Although Foxconn has ramped up its output of iPhone X to 400,000 units a week recently from the previous 100,000 units, the increased production still cannot meet market demand, said the report, citing data from Rosenblatt, Digitimes says.

Ming-chi Kuo, an analyst at Taipei-based KGI Securities, forecast earlier that shipments of iPhone X are likely to reach 30-35 million units before year-end 2017.