Rosenblatt analyst Jun Zhang said checks indicate about 1.5M iPhone 8 preorders on JD.com (JD) in the first three days, versus 3.5M for the iPhone 7 in the first three days. He also thinks China Mobile's (CHL) iPhone 8 preorder volumes are around 1M units, compared to 2.5M iPhone 7 units and 3.5M iPhone 6 units, for the first three days. For the U.S., Zhang said initial feedback also suggests iPhone 8 preorder volume below the iPhone 7 and iPhone 6. The analyst remains concerned iPhone 8 production plan of approximately 70M units for second half 2017 might need to be cut and the iPhone X production ramp might not be able to meet demand for the December and March quarters.

Apple saw sales of its iPhones fall 19.1% in the first three months of the year, CNBC's Ryan Browne reports, citing data from Counterpoint Research. Meanwhile, Huawei saw a 69.7% surge in smartphone sales in the country during the same period, Counterpoint said. Reference Link

Welcome to "Fly Insider," The Fly's weekly recap of notable insider stock transactionsNOTABLE INSIDER PURCHASES: Significant insider purchases reported in the prior week from April 15 through April 19 include:Chairman of Ashford (AINC) Montgomery Bennett purchased 200,000 shares of company stock at $4. 91 per share... To see the rest of the story go to thefly.com. See Story Here

Apple quietly acquired Paris-based AI startup Datakalab on December 17, Challenges' David Pargamin reports. The terms of the transaction could not be learned, but European Commission has been notified of the deal, the author notes. Reference Link

Friday's total option volume of 56.7 million contracts resulted in net open interest growth of 6.01 million calls and 5.28 million puts. NVIDIA (NVDA), Tesla (TSLA), Apple (AAPL) and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) saw the greatest growth. Top five new positions opened include 50k Lyft (LYFT) May-24 20 calls, 44k Energy Transfer (ET) 4/26 weekly 16.5 calls, 43k Las Vegas Sands (LVS) Sep-24 41 calls, 23k Tesla (TSLA) 4/26 weekly 162.5 calls and 21k Papa John's (PZZA) Jun-24 57.5 puts.