▊ iPhone 14 Global price increase
iPhone 14 series has been released for two months. Among them, the iPhone 14 Pro series has been significantly upgraded in appearance and configuration, and sales have soared, and it is called the most popular iPhone model. Therefore, Apple also transferred some production capacity of iPhone 14 standard version to the Pro series models, thereby ensuring the shipment of the Pro series.
Since its release in September, the iPhone 14 Pro series on Apple's official website has been receiving more than three weeks. The latest news shows that the delay in delivery time may continue for a while.
Recently, Apple issued an official press release, explaining the current supply of the iPhone 14 Pro series, saying that due to the epidemic control reasons in the Foxconn factory in Zhengzhou, the production capacity of the iPhone 14 Pro series will be affected. Therefore, Apple expects shipments of the iPhone 14 Pro series models to be lower than previous expectations. Users who purchased the iPhone 14 Pro series will have to wait longer to get the new phone, and said they are working closely with suppliers to restore normal production levels.
I believe that domestic friends should have seen the epidemic situation in the Foxconn factory in Zhengzhou, which is inevitable to affect production capacity.
If you place an order on the official website of Apple in China, the arrival time of the iPhone 14 Pro series will take as fast as one month. In the US, the delivery time of the iPhone 14 Pro series models has increased from 5 days to 25 days.
Domestic Double 11 Shopping Carnival is about to begin, and major third-party shopping platforms have promotional activities. You can also choose third-party platforms with slightly better inventory to purchase, most of which are spot stock.
In addition, due to the impact of strong US dollar and exchange rate fluctuations, mainly in the UK, Japan, Germany and Australia, the starting price of the iPhone 14 series has increased to a certain extent, and only Chinese and American consumers have not been greatly affected.
For example, the starting price of iPhone 14 in the UK is 849 pounds (about 7199 yuan), up about 70 pounds (about 573 yuan) compared to iPhone 13's 779 pounds (about 6380 yuan). Among them, the largest price increase is the neighboring country Japan. The starting price of iPhone 13 is 98,800 yen, while the price of iPhone 14 is 119,800 yen, which is equivalent to RMB, with a price increase of 1,000 yuan.
US dollar strengthening is the reason why Apple has increased prices in other countries while remaining unchanged in the United States. What is more surprising is that the price in China has not changed. It may be that Apple is not very brave to make too much adjustments to the price of the iPhone, considering the sales performance of the Chinese market.
In comparison, the price changes in the iPad product line are quite obvious. With the release of the new iPad 10, the old iPad 9 has not been removed from the shelves, but the price has risen by 100 yuan, with a starting price of 2599 yuan.
US dollar strengthening means that when overseas revenue is converted into US dollars, Apple's revenue will decrease. In a recent conference call, Apple CEO Cook said that if it weren't for exchange rate fluctuations, Apple's fourth-quarter revenue would have been a double-digit increase (actually increased by 8%) compared with the same period last year.
Apple said that even in some markets, exchange rate fluctuations forced Apple to raise prices, demand for iPhones has not declined this year, such as India, Indonesia , Mexico, Vietnam and other countries have achieved double-digit revenue growth.
▊ "Hey Siri" will be removed by Apple
According to Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman, Apple is planning to develop a new experience about Siri. Users will no longer need to enable digital voice assistants through the voice wake-up command of "Hey Siri", but use this feature through a shorter "Siri", reducing the hassle.
Mark Gurman also said that this is "a technical challenge that requires a lot of AI training and basic engineering efforts." Apple has reportedly been working on the change over the past few months and hopes to launch next year or 2024 based on development and testing progress.
Apple is testing this change with employees and is collecting necessary training data as part of the process. One of the specific challenges is ensuring that Siri can understand awakening words in a variety of different accents and dialects.
Apple is also working to improve other aspects of Siri, including integration with third-party applications and services. "It will integrate voice assistants more deeply into third-party applications and services and improve their ability to understand users and take the right action.
Apple's mission to change Siri's wake phrase from "Hey Siri" to "Siri" shouldn't make users feel too novel. But it's not a small task and requires a lot of training and behind-the-scenes work to make such a change.
