Signs of the iPhone 14 Plus‘s poor demand had been apparent for a while now, and Apple’s big gamble on a big phone has since been given the dubious honour common to underperforming iPhones—production has been halted less than two weeks after the phone went on sale on October 7.
Tech portal The Information cited two people involved in the supply chain, one of which told the publication that at least one manufacturer has been told to stop making components while Apple’s procurement team “reevaluates demand for the product.” Further downstream, two assemblers have trimmed production of modules by as much as 70 and 90% respectively.
Alarm bells were ringing as early as last month, when it was reported that Apple cancelled plans to boost overall iPhone 14 production to 96 million units this year, instead keeping it at the same 90 million units as 2021—with focus being shifted towards the more popular Pro models. The boost in Pro production isn’t big enough to offset the cutbacks on the Plus, said The Information.
Even before the phones’ on-sale date, well-known Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said that pre-orders for the standard iPhone 14 were “bad”, worse than even the smaller iPhone 13 Mini that the Plus is replacing. Kuo himself hinted that Apple could cut shipments for November and beyond if sales didn’t pick up after launch—and it looks like that prediction has come to pass.
Apple’s repositioning of the iPhone 14 lineup introduces a new 6.7-inch model—an option previously reserved for Pro buyers—in the form of the Plus. This marks a step change in the company’s strategy, after two years of lukewarm demand for the 5.4-inch Mini models; production was also cut for the 12 Mini within six months of its introduction. For now, Apple still plans to maintain the Plus variant for the next iPhone 15, said one of The Information‘s sources.
By now, the factors behind the regular iPhone 14’s struggling sales performance is clear. The lack of any meaningful changes (slightly better cameras, crash detection, no new chip) is one thing, but Apple also shot itself in the foot by pricing the 14 Plus so closely to the 14 Pro.
In the US, there’s just a USD100 (RM473) difference between the two phones, and while the gulf grows to RM600 in Malaysia, it’s still a reasonable sum of money. The 0.6 inches you lose in screen real estate by buying the Pro is more than made up for by the new A16 Bionic chip, a far better main camera, a telephoto camera, a 120Hz ProMotion display and the headline-grabbing (and terribly named) Dynamic Island.
Apple also not only kept the iPhone 13 and 13 Mini in the lineup but trimmed the prices by USD100 (RM200 in Malaysia). This made the older models even better value, especially as most people probably wouldn’t notice or care about the new features. It didn’t help that the iPhone 14 series in general got a price hike in most markets, even though they stayed the same in the US – in Malaysia, even the most basic 14 now costs over RM4,000.
The iPhone 14 Plus is now available in Malaysia, starting at RM4,699. If you’re getting any model from the 14 series, do be warned that certain Apple authorised resellers—most notably Machines—are forcing in-store buyers to add a RM399 protection plan. You can avoid paying this premium by purchasing the phone online.
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