Jan Dawson, chief telecoms analyst at Ovum, believes Apple may well be cutting orders simply because it is now confident that it can meet demand and doesn't need to maintain the rate of production necessary for the big launch.

"I think this is actually the most likely scenario, and the cut reflects a shift from launch to business as usual, rather than an unexpected result on Apple's part," Dawson said, adding that he believes Apple would only cut production if it had enough devices to sell.

"Apple will have planned carefully to meet initial demand for both 5S and 5C, it now has enough 5Cs to meet demand and is focusing on keeping up with the very healthy demand for the 5S," he said. "I would guess demand for both phones is roughly in line with where Apple expected it to be."

China, the second-largest market for the electronics giant and a main target of the new model, was among the markets to sell new iPhones first.

However, with a starting price for the iPhone 5C of $728 in China, Chinese users criticized the pricing as not that much cheaper than the higher-end iPhone 5S, which started at $858.

"I don't think the 5C was overpriced for what it represents, which is essentially just the iPhone 5 from last year in new packaging," Dawson said. "It's not any cheaper to produce than the iPhone 5 was, and as such, unless Apple wanted to take a big cut in margins on the device, it had to price it at roughly this range."

Vivek Wadhwa, vice-president of Innovation and Research at Singularity University, has an entirely different perspective.

"I think that Apple made a strategic error by pricing the 5C so high. If it had priced this at $300, it would have sold like hot cakes," he said.