Wired
Electronic Enthusiasts Network reported (text / Li Wanwan) September 28 news, according to people familiar with the matter, because the expected surge in demand failed to materialize, Apple has told suppliers to withdraw the assembly volume of the iPhone 14 series in the second half of this year by 6 million. Ministry plan.
On September 16, three models of Apple’s iPhone 14 series have been officially released on Apple Store and e-commerce platforms. However, judging from the data a few days after the launch, the overall sales of the iPhone 14 series are not ideal.
Why Apple’s latest iPhone 14 series won’t sell
Judging from the current situation, the three models that Apple has started to sell are the iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Pro, and iPhone 14 Pro Max, and the iPhone 14 Plus will be released on October 7.
According to market data, Apple’s iPhone 14 series sold 987,000 units in the first three days, 11% lower than the sales of similar products in the iPhone 13 series in the same period last year. In fact, the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max are still relatively popular with users, but the pre-sales of the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus are relatively bleak.
According to the monitoring data of an e-commerce market, in the 7-day pre-sale sales of the iPhone 14 series on the Tmall platform, the pre-sale volume of the iPhone 14 standard series decreased by 70% year-on-year, and the pre-sale volume of the iPhone 14 Pro series increased by 56% year-on-year. Dismal sales of the iPhone 14 standard series have dragged down overall sales of the iPhone 14 series this year.
The Pro version and Pro Max version of the iPhone have always been the high-end and highest-end models in the series. This year’s iPhone 14 Pro series, in addition to the latest A16 chip, 120 Hz refresh rate, and rear three-shot, also launched a new smart The island function combines software and hardware to pop up various messages such as music, game scores, and FaceTime calls in an eye-catching way, which will bring a new experience to users.
It was previously reported that Apple has asked Hon Hai to switch the iPhone 14 production line to the iPhone 14 Pro due to strong consumer demand for the iPhone 14 Pro models, which will help improve Apple’s product portfolio in the fourth quarter of 2022 . Industry insiders expect strong demand for the iPhone 14 Pro to continue into November. However, the bad situation of the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus still affects the sales of the entire iPhone 14 series.
Sales of the iPhone 14 and 14 Plus were dismal, mainly due to the lack of significant upgrades compared to the previous-generation iPhone 13. Electronic enthusiasts have previously reported that the iPhone 14 and 14 Plus launched by Apple this time are equipped with 6.1-inch and 6.7-inch screens respectively. The design is basically the same as that of the iPhone 13, and even the processor uses the previous generation A15.
Of course, the iPhone 13, iPhone 14 and 14 Plus still have some improvements in some aspects, such as the improvement of the imaging system; another example is equipped with a car accident detection function, which can detect serious car collisions, and when the user is unconscious or unable to touch the iPhone Emergency calls are automatically made at any time; satellite communication is also added.
Overall, the iPhone 14 is marginally better than the iPhone 13. And from the reaction of some consumers, the sales of the iPhone 14 series are not good. In addition to not much improvement in performance, the price is too high. According to the information from the previous conference, the prices of 128GB, 256GB and 512GB of the national version of the iPhone 14 are 5999 yuan, 6899 yuan and 8699 yuan respectively; the prices of 128GB, 256GB and 512GB of the iPhone 14 Plus are 6999 yuan, 7899 yuan and 9699 yuan respectively. Yuan. It’s just like when XR first came out, and once the price drops, sales may not be the same.
Which supply chain companies’ revenue will be affected
If Apple increases production capacity, it means that the revenue of upstream supply chain companies will also increase. Now that Apple has withdrawn its plan to increase production of 6 million iPhone 14 series mobile phones, the revenue that these companies could have increased has disappeared. So who are the suppliers of Apple’s iPhone 14 series mobile phones?
The assembly OEMs of the iPhone14 series are mainly Foxconn and Luxshare. It is said that Foxconn has taken 60%-70% of the orders; panel manufacturers are mainly Samsung and BOE; battery manufacturers are mainly Xinpu Technology, Desai, Sunwoda Provided; iPhone 14 Pro rear lens module is supplied by Largan; image sensor and rear lidar module are mainly supplied by Sony.
In addition, a US version of the iPhone 14 Pro Max was disassembled from iFixit, and it is basically possible to know which manufacturers supply various electronic components of the iPhone 14 series. Apple itself can supply some device types, such as some power management chips, audio codecs, voice processors, etc. Of course, the most important one is the A16 processor, which is manufactured by TSMC.
From the dismantling point of view, this US version of the iPhone 14 Pro Max, the power management chip mainly uses products from Renesas Electronics and STMicroelectronics; the display power chip, flash driver, and array driver are supplied by Texas Instruments; wireless power receivers The front-end module is provided by Broadcom; the display port multiplexer is provided by NXP; the DC-DC converters are products from ON Semiconductor and Texas Instruments; the flash memory is provided by SanDisk, and the EEPROM is provided by STMicroelectronics.
It was previously reported that Apple’s iPhone 14 has a flash memory chip using Yangtze Memory. According to the national version of the iPhone 14 dismantled by “calculus”, the flash memory uses Kioxia’s products. In the dismantling of the above-mentioned iFixit US iPhone 14 Pro Max, the flash memory chip of YMTC was not seen. However, judging from the dismantling video of the National Bank version of the iPhone 14 Pro Max released by a domestic blogger, the dismantled version uses flash memory chips supplied by Changjiang Storage.
In addition, Apple’s latest iPhone 14 series this year introduced two-way satellite communication, which is also particularly interesting. The satellite communication function of the iPhone 14 series benefits from the Qualcomm Snapdragon X65 baseband chip and Apple’s self-developed RF radio frequency antenna. The Qualcomm Snapdragon X65 baseband chip adds new 2.4 GHz n53 band capabilities to support satellite communications company Globalstar’s satellites.
summary
It can be seen that one of the reasons for Apple’s withdrawal of the increased production capacity of the iPhone 14 series is the iPhone 14 and 14 Plus models. Compared with the iPhone 13, the overall performance improvement is not obvious, and the price is still expensive, so that users do not buy it, resulting in poor sales of the overall iPhone 14 series when the sales of the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max are obvious.
In addition, it is also necessary to consider that the current market environment for consumer electronics is sluggish. In recent years, consumers’ desire to purchase machines has not been strong, which may affect the sales of new machines. From the perspective of Apple’s current planned production volume, it is roughly the same as last year, but from the current situation, it may be adjusted according to the sales situation in the future, so supply chain companies also need to respond.