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Text/Zhang Yongyi
Source/Power Plant (ID: wonder-capsule)
On November 21, the power plant received news from Apple’s upstream screen supplier that limited by the recovery of Zhengzhou Foxconn’s production capacity and consumers’ willingness to buy, iPhone 14 Plus production has been suspended and production capacity will be used for the iPhone 14 Pro series.
The iPhone 14 series released this year can be said to be the most ill-fated generation of iPhones, and it is also the generation of iPhones with the strangest supply chain problems.
The iPhone 14 Plus has sufficient stock in both online and offline stores, but no one cares about it; the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max are still hard to find today, one month after they went on sale, and the existing stock in the market even has a price increase the trend of.
But this kind of “ice and fire” different models have problems in the upstream and downstream at the same time, which is a thorny challenge for Apple. In Apple’s fourth-quarter earnings call in October, Apple admitted that it was already reducing the production capacity of the iPhone 14 Plus and using its original production capacity to increase the iPhone 14 Pro series.
Another change that affects the sales of the iPhone 14 Plus is that Apple has also raised the price of the iPhone globally this year, which has further reduced the competitiveness of the iPhone 14 Plus, which should have been the main cost-effective product, and even recorded a sales record higher than that of the iPhone 13 mini series. The lower result also allowed Apple to speed up the pace of reducing the production capacity of the iPhone 14 Plus and switching to support the iPhone 14 Pro series.
However, the fate of the iPhone 14 Plus, which was originally only “reduced production”, has taken a turn for the worse recently: In addition to Apple’s request in October to internally reassess the market demand for the iPhone 14 Plus, this week DSCC CEO and analyst Ross Young even said that the iPhone 14 A signal that shipments of Plus series screen panels will approach zero in December.
An Apple screen supply chain manufacturer revealed to the power plant that it confirmed that its supply of screens with special specifications for the iPhone 14 Plus has drastically reduced production since late October. This is also consistent with the earlier The information report that Apple had notified several suppliers in October that it would suspend production of the iPhone 14 Plus and asked the “purchasing team to reassess the demand for this product”, and it is also in line with outside estimates. The production capacity of iPhone 14 Plus has been reduced to 20%.
But apart from the above reasons, the iPhone 14 Plus will not end up completely discontinued.
In addition to the supply chain capacity problems that have spread since last year, a more fatal blow occurred in October-the production capacity of Foxconn in Zhengzhou was greatly reduced due to the epidemic. The actual impact of this incident on the production capacity of the iPhone 14 series is unknown to the outside world, but according to Bloomberg’s estimates, the entire incident may eventually cause a 30% decline in iPhone production.
Now, even though Foxconn’s internal epidemic has been brought under control at this stage, the Zhengzhou and even Henan governments have started to help Foxconn solve the short-term recruitment difficulties. Foxconn even offered employees a daily attendance subsidy of 400 yuan, and the full attendance bonus in November exceeded 15,000 Yuan incentive policy.
But for Apple, the sudden disappearance of nearly 30% of its production capacity in the short term is already an irreversible situation.
In other words, even though the iPhone 14 Plus still has some production capacity today, it is only one step away from the actual discontinuation of production; what is in front of Apple is a multiple-choice question: iPhone 14 Plus or iPhone 14 Pro, which one should be given up? ?
Why is the iPhone 14 Plus out?
The thinking behind the iPhone 14 Plus product is actually not difficult to understand. In essence, this is a product that Apple hopes to replicate its iPhone 8 Plus sales miracle.
In 2017, even under the halo of the release of the iPhone X, which bears the significance of the tenth anniversary of the iPhone, the iPhone 8 Plus still achieved unimaginable sales with its affordable price and excellent reputation, reaching the iPhone X series that year. triple the market share.
Today, the iPhone 8 Plus is still the iPhone that many users use every day. Therefore, the iPhone 14 Plus restarted this series after five years, obviously targeting this part of users and Android flagship phones that have eroded the iPhone’s market share in recent years.
However, the actual performance of the iPhone 14 Plus on the market proves that the market obviously does not accept the answer given by Apple: the iPhone 14 Plus uses the same A15 bionic series SoC of the iPhone 13 series, and its appearance and functions are almost the same as those of the previous generation. , In addition, this generation of iPhone 14 Pro series has made more innovations in appearance/function, including smart island and screen display.
The comparison between the two parties makes the iPhone 14 Plus look like the iPhone 13 Plus, a product from the previous generation-this is quite a fatal problem for smartphones whose trendy attributes have already occupied the main purchase factor.
In addition to the iPhone 14 Plus’ own factors, the iPhone 14 Pro series is in short supply in the market, which is another reason for accelerating the decline of the iPhone 14 Plus.
Although China’s Double 11 has ended, for the global, especially the European and American markets, the annual shopping season, the Christmas season and “Black Friday” have just begun.
For many European and American consumers, it has been a tradition for many years to buy iPhones for family and friends at this time. Therefore, including Apple’s official and various operator channels, they will give the new iPhone the most powerful promotions in a year.
But the premise of all this depends on the sufficient stock supply of iPhone 14 Pro.
According to the current status of Apple’s US official website, even if Black Friday has not yet started (starting on November 25th), if you place an order for the iPhone 14 Pro immediately, you can only receive it on December 29th at the earliest – this time has passed Four days before Christmas this year, and if you buy the iPhone 14 Pro through other telecom operator channels, you may even have to wait until next year for delivery.
This is an unacceptable condition for most ordinary users who want to buy an iPhone as a Christmas gift, and the blow to the market’s willingness to buy the iPhone 14 Pro can be imagined.
But this situation is not particularly sudden: Recently, Apple has also rarely issued a press release on its official website to warn investors and consumers: Due to the local restrictions on the prevention and control of the new crown epidemic in Zhengzhou, the iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max will be affected. “has had a significant impact” on the production of
The iPhone 14 Plus is cold in the market, and the serious production capacity problems encountered by the iPhone 14 Pro in the supply chain are hindering growth. The ebb and flow, coupled with the extremely valuable production capacity, forced Apple to make a “choose one” “‘s choice: temporarily abandon the production of iPhone 14 Plus, and make every effort to ensure the normal supply of the iPhone 14 Pro series during Black Friday and the Christmas season.
But in fact, this decision is not a dilemma: after all, the iPhone 14 Pro, which directly increases the average profit margin of the iPhone and is currently seriously out of stock, is more important than the iPhone 14 Plus, which has weak omni-channel sales and has stockpiled offline. The results are quite obvious; iPhone 14 is slowly dying in Apple’s step-by-step compromise and abandonment.
But even if the production of the iPhone 14 Plus is completely stopped now, it is not conclusive for the time being, proving that the iPhone 14 Plus is a work doomed to failure.
According to Apple’s past practice, even if the production of a model is completely stopped at the moment, the previously purchased components will not be consumed in a short period of time. In addition to the existing production capacity of the iPhone 14 Plus, Apple needs to give the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max “emergency support” “In addition, it is also possible to decide whether to restart the production line based on changes in iPhone 14 Plus sales in the future.
According to data released by DSCC earlier, the screen purchases of Apple’s entire iPhone 14 series in 2022 will still exceed 10% in 2021. The side confirms the current coldness of the iPhone 14 Plus in the market, which further reduces the demand for inventory accessories, and eventually evolved to the complete discontinuation of production today.
At the same time, even if the iPhone 14 Plus is currently discontinued, it does not mean that the iPhone 14 Plus production line is really closed forever: even the two generations of the iPhone 12 mini / 13 mini, which are considered to be “sales on the street” by the outside world, are still in production. The actual sales volume of more than 10 million has been reached, and a single model has reached this sales base. Whether it is the supply of subsequent after-sales parts or the demand for complete machine replacement, the production line will continue to be maintained for several years.
According to Apple’s consistent product planning several years in advance, even if the iPhone 14 Plus reappears sluggish market feedback like the iPhone 12 mini, the release of the iPhone 15 Plus is now almost a certainty.
At present, Apple still has a variety of tools to improve the market competitiveness of the iPhone 14 Plus-the most direct and effective means is of course price reduction. At the beginning, the market was cold, but in the later stage of the product release, it lowered the price many times to make the product re-established. The popular iPhone XR has been received on the consumer side.
With the price reduction gradually highlighting the cost-effective iPhone XR, there is also an evaluation of “the lower the price, the narrower the frame”.
But in any case, the ill-fated fate of the iPhone 14 series this year will continue for now. As for the iPhone 14 Plus, which has temporarily died down, the failure caused by its product positioning is also doomed.
The iPhone 14 Plus that “plays big and plays super big” may really be out of play.
