Apple may have trimmed production forecast because iPhone 14 is a modest upgrade
Even though the worst days of lockdowns are thankfully behind us, 2022 has been a tough year on many fronts. Economic uncertainties, the war in Ukraine, and supply-side issues are expected to weigh on phone production. Apple is also expected to produce fewer iPhones than analysts had predicted, and while some of that could be chalked down to the aforementioned exterior factors, some of it comes down to the fact that iPhone 14 will not be a significant upgrade over the iPhone 13.
That's according toBloomberg's Mark Gurman. When asked about his opinion on Apple's rumored iPhone production target for 2022, Gurman agreed that faltering consumer spending and supply chain disruptions likely have had a part to play, but added that the company may have tapered expectations because the iPhone 14 doesn't sound like a gamechanger.
Apple reportedly has a flat production target of 220 million for 2022, whereas analysts were expecting the company to produce 240 million units. Overall smartphone shipments are predicted to contract by 2 percent this year. Even rival Samsung has apparently decided to cut production by 10 percent.
Apple had earlier warned that supply snarls could affect sales by $4 billion to $8 billion this quarter. This could be attributed to a new round of lockdowns in China where a large percentage of production is concentrated.
The company has a reputation for having a tighter grip on its supply chain than rivals, which suggests there is another factor at play - lower demand. Gurman says the iPhone 14 will be more of an S upgrade, meaning it will be an incremental upgrade over last year's models.
For starters, the new phones will be powered by a chip that will be based on a manufacturing tech that the company has been using for the last two years. Also, even though the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max are expected to replace the notch with pill and hole cutouts, the overall look is expected to stay the same. These variants will reportedly also feature a new 48MP camera that could make them the best camera phones of the year.
Gurman believes most consumers want a new design, which is unlikely to arrive until 2023. As for what the new design could entail, look no further than leaked renders that surfaced last year. Granted, those renders were rumored to be for the iPhone 14, but it now looks like that design was actually meant for the iPhone 15. If that actually is the case, the iPhone 15 may feature a thicker chassis, flat camera setup, circular buttons, and redesigned speaker and microphone grilles.
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