Citi analysts have published the most pessimistic forecast for the iPhone X yet

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Apple CEO Tim Cook

• The iPhone X isn't selling as well as expected and analysts are racing to downgrade their shipment forecasts for the $1,000 phone over the next few months.
• Analysts at Citi gave the most pessimistic forecast, downgrading Q1 shipments from 27 million to 14 million units.
• Analysts have previously blamed lack of interesting innovation, the iPhone X's price tag, and increased competition from Chinese manufacturers for "sluggish" demand.

Here's the most pessimistic forecast yet for iPhone X shipments during the first few months of this year.

Analysts at Citi dramatically revised down their shipment forecasts for the iPhone X for the first six months of this year, citing "sluggish" demand for the $1,000 (£721) phone.

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In a note to investors, they predicted 14 million iPhone X shipments for the first three months of 2018, then just 7 million shipments for the second quarter. That's down from 32 million for the last quarter of 2017, when the phone went on sale.

These are the most pessimistic numbers we've seen yet, as analysts race to downgrade their iPhone X shipment forecasts. In December, some analysts estimated first quarter shipments of around 25 million units - which is much more optimistic than Citi.

Here's what Citi's analysts wrote, emphasis ours:

"We reduce our 1Q18E and 2Q18E iPhone build forecast mainly due to sluggish iPhone X demand. For 1Q18E, we now forecast overall iPhone shipment of 51m vs. 61m previously. We reduce 1Q18E iPhone X shipment to 14m from 27m. For 2Q18E, we trim total iPhone shipment to 40m from 48m previously as we revise down iPhone X shipment to 7m. Overall, we now model 1H18E total iPhone build of 92m vs. 85m in 1H17E, up 7% [year on year]."

Analysts have blamed the iPhone X's poor performance on its lack of interesting innovation and its high price.

There's also the issue that people can buy perfectly adequate iPhones for much less money. A Piper Jaffray survey found that a large chunk of iPhone owners who didn't upgrade to the iPhone X said they were perfectly happy with their existing devices.