Apple Pay Mobile Payments Doing Well, Mixed Reports on the New iPhones

On the surface, one might think that Apple is doing quite well by pretty much every indication. Some reports suggest that Apple has reported record revenues with its latest quarterly updates, and there’s word that Apple Pay is proceeding along apace as well. The future, however, looks a little less bright thanks to one key piece of news, which suggests that a downturn ahead of the holidays might be afoot as well.

We know Apple Pay is doing reasonably well, poised to make inroads into Germany, and this on top of a slew of new locations, banks, credit unions, and countries. Apple’s revenues from services—of which Apple Pay is one—reached $10 billion, a new all-time high. While Apple has played figures about Apple Pay close to the vest in recent years, it’s worth noting that Apple’s “services” run the gamut from Apple Pay to iTunes.

Apple’s even projecting revenues between $89 and $93 billion for next quarter, which only adds to the rosy picture for the company and the mobile payments platform.

However, there’s another report that suggests the picture may not be as rosy as earlier noted. Word from the Nikkei Asian Review suggests that Apple told Pegatron and Foxconn to shutter plans for more production likes on the iPhone XR. That’s going to reduce Foxconn’s manufacture rates by about 100,000 phones per day.

Additionally, Apple told one of its smaller manufacturers, Wistron, to hold out until the event rush orders occurred. Wistron would not, however, see any iPhone XR orders for the upcoming holiday shopping season. Just to top it off, Apple plans to stop reporting unit sales starting next quarter, a move that has some already questioning just how Apple’s really doing.

Apple has been increasingly plagued by a combination of more expensive devices, longer times to upgrade, and a continuing perception that Apple’s just not that innovative any more. It was bad enough that Apple wouldn’t talk numbers about Apple Pay, but now it won’t talk numbers about devices. These are unpleasant signs, that suggest Apple may be declining in general.

Still, these are just suggestions. Only time will tell what the actual outcome is, but with less concrete evidence to go on than ever, the future doesn’t look bright.