News of Apple cutting its iPhone order for the third and fourth quarters of 2013 sent the shares of the Cupertino-based tech giant plummeting to below $400. Business Insider quoted NASDAQ's real time price as of 11:20 a.m. that Apple (AAPL) share prices had gone down to $398.44 from the Friday closing price of $413.50.

Citing supply chain checks, Jefferies analyst Peter Misek said that Apple is cutting its iPhone order for the 3rd quarter of 2013 to 25 to 30 million units from 40 to 45 million. The reduction in order indicates the continuous downward slide suffered by the company founded by the late Steve Jobs under the stewardship of Apple CEO Tim Cook, whose bonuses are now tied to Apple share price performance.

Mr Misek added that for the last quarter of the year, Apple is also reducing its original build plan to 50 to 55 million from the original 60 to 55 million, Business Insider quoted the analyst's new note.

The daily pointed out that if Mr Misek's figures are correct, the iPhone business of the Cupertino-based firm would expand by only 4.6 per cent on a year-over-year basis for the 2013 holiday quarter, resulting in the analyst slashing his price target to $405 from $420 on the new iPhone build plans.

Apple filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission a Board of Directors resolution that ties Mr Cook's bonus directly to the company's share performance.

Apple SVP and General Counsel Bruce Sewell said the SEC filing is an initiative from Mr Cook to apply a performance metric to his outstanding 2011 CEO equity award and any potential future awards.

The falling share prices, which has displeased share holders, has prompted Mr Cook to tie his bonus to the company's share price performance.

However, the bad news for Apple does not end with its plummeting value. On Monday also, Global Equities Research analyst Trip Chowdhry, quoted by Investors.com, cited anecdotes within the tech circle that Apple employees are planning to leave the company and are apply for jobs with other tech firms such as Google, LinkedIn, Facebook and Hewlett-Packard.

The analysts interviewed participants in tech conferences and mobile and cloud computing events in Silicon Valley at an average of 9 to 12 events monthly, which means he speaks to about 400 to 500 tech employees monthly.

He said the conversations indicate low morale at Apple who cited the company's declining stock prices as an indicator of their bleak future with the tech giant founded by the late Steve Jobs.

However, Apple is planning to hire more people because it is adding 7,400 jobs at its new headquarters called Campus 2 scheduled to open in 2016. The 7,400 new hires would boost the tech giant's workforce by 46 per cent to 23,400.