Foxconn workers get rare holiday

Lukewarm forecasts in December from suppliers such as Dialog Semiconductor and casing maker Jabil Circuit stoked fears that iPhone shipments could fall for the first time. But analysts questioned the extent of any slowdown.

"Apple has been gaining significant market share in pretty much every region, and I'm not seeing a global slowdown," said analyst Patrick Moorhead at Moor Insights & Strategy.

As one sign of that, Apple announced on Wednesday US time that customers spent over US$1.1 billion on apps and in-app purchases in the two weeks ending 3 January, setting a record for holiday season sales.

On New Year's day alone, customers spent more than US$144 million, breaking the previous single-day record set on Christmas Day.

Nevertheless, many are bracing for a production cut.

Since early December, about a third of analysts tracked by Thomson Reuters have trimmed their estimates on Apple. On average, they expect Apple to increase revenue this year by less than 4 percent, a far cry from the 28 percent achieved in the business year that ended in September.

In contrast, Huawei Technologies on Wednesday said it had become the first Chinese handset vendor to ship more than 100 million smartphones a year.

(Reporting by Anya George Tharakan and Lehar Maan in BENGALURU, Yimou Lee in HONG KONG, Ritsuko Ando in TOKYO, Julia Love in LAS VEGAS; Editing by Steve Coates and Christopher Cushing)