Author | Yuan Silai
Edit | Su Jianxun
iPhone 14 Plus version has become a very embarrassing product.
On the last day of National Day, the iPhone 14 plus was sold for the first time, but it quickly broke the issuance. The third-party quotation is already about 400 yuan cheaper than the Apple official website. In the past, the trend of users hiring price increases to find "scalpers" to rush to buy has not reappeared on the iPhone 14 Plus.
According to Bloomberg, Apple has abandoned the partial increase in iPhone 14 production plan - the demand for the new iPhone 3 has not met Apple's expectations.
needs to be noted that the sales of Apple's entire product line are not sluggish. According to , an analyst who has been following Apple, Kuo Mingchi, , Apple has shifted the iPhone 14 and Plus production lines to iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max, and iPhone 13 will reduce the price. According to his research, shipments of iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max will increase by 10%.
is not only the iPhone 14 Plus that is cold. According to Times Finance, some Foxconn employees said that the Zhengzhou and Shenzhen factory assisted the Pro series production areas have removed some iPhone 14 production lines. Some employees revealed that after the production of the iPhone 14 regular version in November, workers will support Pro production.
Apple also has different sales of standard version and Pro version in the Chinese market. According to Sandalwood e-commerce market monitoring data, the pre-sale volume of the iPhone 14 standard version fell by 70% year-on-year, but the pre-sale volume of the Pro series increased by 56% year-on-year. After hedged against , the iPhone series' 7-day pre-sale sales increased by 17% year-on-year.
The overall sales of iPhone 14 will not be as good as the iPhone 13, but because the Pro version is too popular, it has increased sales.
Of course, the final result is only barely in line with expectations. Because the standard version has been cooled, Apple's stock volume will remain at 90 million units this year. As soon as the news came out, Apple's stock price fell 4.1% that night.
In addition to the lack of innovation and purchasing points for products, this year's global economic form has also poured cold water on users' enthusiasm for changing phones. With recession worries rising and European energy crisis pushing up costs of living, the most difficult time has not come. Although Apple has huge wealthy users to support sales, it still cannot escape the cloud of decline in sales.
failed iPhone 14 Plus
Apple has always been confused about how to make transitional products.
Plus is another attempt by Apple after the mini failed. When the iPhone 12 mini was launched, Apple hoped to meet some people who were under budget and wanted to buy iPhones. Before this, some overseas market users did not abandon small-screen mobile phones, giving Apple the illusion that they could attract these users. The final result of
is that mini has been described by many commentators as "disaster". Poor battery life and too small screen are hardware flaws. At that time, the 6-inch screen was already mainstream, and even Apple could not move against the trend.
Dongguan , iPhone 14 officially released
is the more important thing. The iPhone mini price is very cheap in Apple's product line, but it is completely uncompetitive compared with other Android phones in horizontal direction. In addition to some users who have too small palms, have extra budgets and are obsessed with small screen phones, more people would rather buy SEs with larger screens and affordable prices. The failure of
Mini made Apple look for an answer from the other end - will users pay for the screen increase? After all, Plus has created glory once. Apple's first launch of the Plus version was in the iPhone 6 era. Plus sales have not been announced, and the sales of the entire series are still setting a record, selling 220 million units, and the life cycle lasts for 5 years.
Dongguan, iPhone 14 is officially on sale. The picture comes from Visual China
Success may give Apple an illusion: screen size is an attractive selling point. The equation
was established 5 years ago. But in 2022, users have long been numbed by high-end Android devices and low-price prices. They will only pay for it in two situations: one is that the product has visible innovations, such as the iPhone 14 Pro, such as the iPhone 11 with a large upgrade in chips; the other is that the price is cheap, such as SE.
iPhone 14 Plus is a product that fills the mini. From the release, it can be said that it was an unexpected failure. Apart from the screen becoming 6.7 inches and expanding the battery capacity, this product has no updates.
Apple launched the Plus version, which may be considered because users who cannot afford Pro under the recession. Plus can be called "less flagship" (secondary flagship)
and its failure is similar to that of mini. In the final analysis, the price and configuration are still not proportional. This group of users does not have the obsession with "new iPhone models". After the price reduction of iPhone 13 is more in line with their budget. True high-end users will not consider the boring Plus, which has led to the iPhone 14 Plus becoming a useless product that is not enough. What should Apple do after
consumption power declines?
This time the iPhone 14 series arrangement has very subtle considerations. Before the release of
iPhone 14, rumors of price increases were rising one after another. When the final product was released, the lowest configuration price of each model did not increase compared to the iPhone 13, but the high-end version with larger memory was more expensive than the iPhone 13.
When the global economic situation declines, Apple can only make more profits on rich users. The iPhone 14 Plus also continues this idea, and in the end it is to dig out as many high-income users as possible. The standard version of
iPhone 14 is cool, which can actually prove that consumption is weak. In Greater China, Apple's key growth area, the sales volume of the iPhone 14 in the first three days after its launch was 11% lower than the iPhone 13 series.
This recession has had a different impact on Apple than the 2008 global financial crisis. Smart phones were just emerging at that time, and even though the external environment was shrouded in sorrow, this industry was full of hope and vitality.
Beijing, iPhone 14 is on sale. The picture comes from Visual China
The market has long been saturated in 2022. Canalys data shows that smartphone shipments in the second quarter of 2022 fell by 9%.
The unpredictable economic situation may be unprecedented. China's GDP growth rate in the second quarter was only 0.4%, the lowest level since the epidemic. Eurozone 's consumer confidence index is even lower than when the epidemic broke out. Both regions are crucial to Apple shipments.
The US consumer market is also full of uncertainty. In July, Walmart warned investors that consumers were slowing their purchases. Although inflation expectations fell after aggressive rate hikes , the U.S. consumer confidence index rose in September. But it is still unknown when inflation will ease.
Apple is about to travel through another economic cycle . That time in 2008 was the collapse of the financial system, and the dark clouds of war, epidemics and geopolitical conflicts in 2022 became the protagonists.
is as powerful as an apple, and it is inevitably blown against the wind. When the third quarter report was released, Apple did not give its performance expectations for the next quarter, and sales of MacBook, iPad, and wearable devices all declined. The revenue growth rate of service exceeded 10%, but compared with the decline in 2021, it is lower than analysts' expectations. In Cook's words, the financial report was "mixed".
Of course, compared with peers, Apple has shown stronger resilience. Even if the iPhone 14 and Plus are not satisfactory, the hot sales of Pro and Max prove that Apple is unshakable in the high-price range.
High-end users are more important in economic turmoil. Compared with mid- and low-end users, the wealth of these people will not fluctuate violently and they will have extremely high loyalty. They are the ballast of the manufacturer.
In addition to peer comparison, among the three major html manufacturers in , Apple performs the most stable. Facebook and Google , which rely on advertising, were the worst injured. Even Microsoft said that advertising revenue has declined, while Apple's hardware and software business has hedged.
Just, everything is still far from the end of the dust. Whether American consumer confidence can continue depends on whether inflation can be suppressed. In Europe, it is also unknown whether countries can successfully overcome the energy crisis . When several major markets are turbulent, the momentum of the iPhone 14 Pro is difficult to ensure that it can continue. The only relief is that Apple is still the most resistant to cycle effects among tech companies.
36Kr Graphics
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-