Apple is scaling back supply chain orders for the iPhone, according to a new report. The news follows a series of developments that signal what could be the first marked decline in the consumer dominance of the Apple iPhone since its inception.

Suppliers in China are reporting a slowdown in production of the iPhone, Apple's iconic smartphone that generates well over half the company's persistently record-breaking revenues. According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, citing multiple unnamed sources familiar with Apple's Chinese supply chain, Apple has reduced iPhone production orders from its Chinese suppliers.

As a matter of course, Apple projects consumer demand for its iPhones, giving suppliers a sense of the workload months in advance and adjusting along the way based on inventory and changes in demand. The slowdown Apple has reportedly signaled over the past several months to its suppliers hints that the company is struggling to grow sales of the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, which were unveiled in September 2015 and launched shortly after.

The production cutback, which could be by as much as 30 percent over the next three months, is reportedly large enough that it has led to many Chinese suppliers' employees being let off of work early for the Chinese Lunar New Year break -- or laid off, altogether.

Documented evidence that the Chinese government has had to undersign more than $12 million in subsidies, in an effort to minimize layoffs at the Foxconn plant that is the primary assembler of Apple's iPhones, further supports the claims. The government of Zhengzhou province where the Foxconn assembly facility is located posted a notice on its website on Dec. 25, saying that it would grant the company the equivalent of $12.6 million as an "unemployment-insurance work-force stabilization subsidy."

Around this time last year, Apple broke records by posting, literally, the highest earnings in any quarter from any company, ever. As Latin Post previously reported, Apple sold 74.5 million iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus devices during that holiday season, beating analyst predictions by several million dollars and over 10 percentage points.

The Apple iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, introduced in Sept. 2014, represented a big change in the company's design -- most notably increasing the size of the iPhone's screen from the 4.0-inch form factor that had remained unchanged for years, to a 4.7-inch screen on the iPhone 6 and a 5.5-inch display for the iPhone 6 Plus.

The 2015 iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus introduced incremental improvements, but no major differences in overall design, leading to concerns as far back as October that Apple's profits could fall, even as Apple met analyst expectations for that quarter.

Even hype around a possible entry-level, 4-inch "iPhone 6c" or "iPhone 6s Mini" that has been widely rumored to be launched in early 2016 adds to the mounting evidence that Apple is struggling to grow its iPhone market. If true, one of the only reasons why Apple would launch a new 4-inch iPhone would be to retain or win back consumers that didn't want an iPhone with a larger screen in the first place.

The market is reacting to the news with pessimism, and it has been affecting Apple's stock in world markets and on Wall Street. On Tuesday, after the Japanese newspaper Nikkei produced a similar report, Apple stock fell 2.5 percent to $102.71.

Meanwhile on Wednesday, Apple shares experienced a wild ride on Wall Street, sliding down another 2.5 percent in late afternoon trading towards the $100 price level. Apple stocks haven't closed below $100 since 2014.