Are the long lines, chaos and fanfare that marked the iPhone launches a thing of the past? It's hard to believe but the iPhone maker seems to think so as it is reported that Apple is cutting down the orders for components for the iPhone 5 due to weaker demands.

According to a The Wall Street Journal report, Apple is facing a sluggish demand for its flagship product, and this weaker-than-expected demand has forced the company to reduce component orders for the January-March quarter with some orders cut to half of what had been originally planned.

The sources further revealed that the Cupertino, Calif., company has notified its suppliers of the order cuts last month, which is clear evidence that the sales of iPhone 5 have not been as good as Apple would have anticipated. Citing unnamed sources close to the matter, the report said the company has slashed the iPhone 5 screen orders to nearly half of what it initially planned to order.

The WSJ article mirrored a similar report published by Brightwire (Original Source: Nikkei), which claimed that the revised reduction of Apple orders are forcing Japanese LCD makers to look for business opportunities with other electronics manufacturers. It is reported that Japanese firms account for nearly 40 percent of iPhone 5 component supply as Apple has promptly shifted its supply deals to Japan to lower its reliance on Samsung Electronics. The 4-inch Retina displays used in the iPhone 5 are provided by Japanese manufacturers Sharp and Japan Display along with South Korea's LG Display.

According to a recent IDC report, Apple's share of world-wide smartphone shipments came down to 14.6 percent in Q3 2012 from a peak of 23 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011. On the other hand, the South-Korean tech giant Samsung has managed to increase its share 31.3 percent in the third quarter of 2012 from just 8.8 percent in the third quarter of 2010.