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according to foreign media reports on september 26, apple's stock price fell slightly in early trading on wednesday, and the stock price has been in negative range this month due to growing concerns that demand for the new iphone 16 lags behind wall street expectations, while sales in the chinese market continue to be affected in the face of increasingly fierce competition.

apple inc. (aapl) unveiled its latest iphone model earlier this month, hoping to use it as a launchpad for a series of artificial intelligence initiatives, dubbed apple intelligence, that it plans to inject into its 2.2 billion user base.

however, the various ai tools will be rolled out gradually over the coming months and only in certain markets as apple grapples with development challenges, regulatory pressure and growing competition in the global smartphone market.

that appears to have hurt early demand for the iphone 16, with reports that lead times (a measure of how long it takes to produce and fulfill consumer orders) have shortened compared to previous phone launches.

ming-chi kuo, an apple analyst closely followed by wall street, reported that apple sold about 37 million new iphone 16s in the first weekend after the iphone 16 was released on september 9. this figure is down about 12.7% from the first few days after the iphone 15 was released last year.

earlier this week, jpmorgan analyst samik chatterjee said demand for the base iphone 16 model was similar to last year's levels. but he noted that interest in the higher-priced pro models had declined.

iphone 16 demand comes into focus

analysts at ubs also reported that iphone delivery times will shorten, using so-called ubs evidence lab data that tracks iphone supply in 30 regions.

they said the data showed the situation was not improving and we were increasingly concerned, especially for high-end models.

the bank added: without improved demand, we believe the december quarter visible alpha consensus forecast of 6% iphone revenue growth (with a market growth rate of more than 6%) appears to be at risk.

meanwhile, morgan stanley analysts noted on wednesday that delivery times are "following the same trajectory but lower than the past three iphone cycles," based on data from the first 11 days of pre-orders.

"while supply has improved and we are hearing anecdotal positive iphone 16 demand, we interpret these data points with caution, suggesting they may have limited predictive power for the full cycle," morgan stanley added. "we continue to expect any potential iphone manufacturing revisions to come in early to mid-october."

foreign smartphone sales fall in china

china data released on wednesday also highlighted growing concerns about demand for traditional iphones in the country, where foreign-made smartphone sales fell 12.7% in august, even as overall sales rose 26.7% to 24.05 million units.

the figures, released by the china academy of information and communications technology, follow the launch of huawei's foldable mate xt smartphone and come after apple reported disappointing third-quarter chinese sales, which fell 6.5% to $14.73 billion in the three months to june.

apple is scheduled to report fiscal fourth-quarter results on oct. 31, with preliminary estimates of earnings per share of about $1.60 on revenue of $94.4 billion.

finally, apple's stock price fell 0.83% in midday trading to $225.59 per share.