It may be tricky getting your hands on an iPhone 14 Pro or iPhone 14 Pro Max this Christmas, with reported production woes likely to lead to severe shortages.
According to respected Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple will ship 15 to 20 million fewer iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max handsets than expected for the final quarter of the year.
This is a direct result of labour protests at the Hon Hai/Foxconn iPhone plant in Zhengzhou, China, over a restrictive Covid policy. Workers at the plant have reportedly been forced to live on site in a bid to contain an outbreak of the virus.
Apparently, the resulting protests have severely cut into Apple’s production plans, leading to a 20% shortfall in available units for the festive period. While efforts are being made to outsource production to cover the shortfall, the result is that shipments for the December period “were still significantly lower than expected”.
Mass shipments may not start again in earnest until late December at the earliest, which would obviously put paid to a whole lot of (admittedly quite extravagant) Christmas present plans.
This is going to hit Apple’s fourth quarter revenue hard, given the high price (and thus highly profitable) nature of the iPhone 14 Pro line. Kuo reckons it could take a hit of as much as a 20 to 30%.
As you may have noticed if you’ve been shopping for one of the Apple’s premium smartphones recently, it’s already quite tricky to get your hands on an iPhone 14 Pro or iPhone 14 Pro Max. Going through the checkout process for an iPhone 14 Pro from Apple’s online store today revealed an estimated delivery date of January 4.
Apple warned customers earlier in November that they needed to order their iPhone 14 Pro straight away if they wanted to get it in time for Christmas amidst ongoing shortages. Sure enough, it now seems you’ll be waiting until the new year for Apple’s best smartphone.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
