Launched last September, the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus would struggle to find their audience. In any case, this is what emerges from the report by Pegatron, one of Apple’s service providers in charge of manufacturing the iPhone 14 and 14 Plus.
The company has indeed announced disappointing results. Its turnover fell by 28.3% in November 2022. The Taiwanese company explains that those responsible for this debacle are the iPhone 14 and 14 Plus which accounted for only a third of iPhone sales.
It’s hard to feign astonishment at this information, with previous reports from other providers showing a similar trend. In October 2022, a financial holding company of JP Morgan revealed the very short delivery times of the iPhone 14 and 14 Plus, stressing that stocks were high. An indicator that could not be clearer as to the reception given by the public.
This is even more alarming at Apple, the company having always had creed not to leave too many stocks with its partner distributors (no more than 4 weeks in advance). But then, why such a lack of love for the iPhone 14 and 14 Plus?
iPhone 14 and 14 Plus: a predictable failure
We could have put this commercial failure on the back of shortages of components. If this were the case, Pegatron would have mentioned it and the delivery times for these two models would be much longer. At the time of writing, a red 128 GB iPhone 14 is available for delivery within 2 hours from an Apple Store, within 24 hours anywhere in France. The shortage of components and transport problems therefore do not affect these two products.
In reality, the iPhone 14 and 14 Plus seem to be paying the price for a business strategy that has reached a point of no return. First, these two models are not clear evolutions compared to the previous generation. The iPhone 14 Plus is certainly a first for Apple (it replaces the mini format), but apart from its size, it is in all respects identical to an iPhone 14, very close to an iPhone 13, itself barely more evolved than an iPhone 12. In short, you understand.
This lack of innovation is all the more difficult to digest as the prices of this latest generation have soared. Tim Cook may have proudly announced that the prices were not changing, but that’s not true. In any case, outside the United States.
In the rest of the world, the brand did not hesitate to drastically increase prices, citing an unfavorable exchange rate against the dollar. Thus, in France, an iPhone 14 is marketed from 1,019 euros when the previous generation cost well under 1,000 euros. The iPhone 14 Plus is available from 1,169 euros, almost the price of an iPhone 13 Pro when it was released last year.
Apple has also kept its iPhone 13 and 13 mini in the catalog, at much more attractive prices. The iPhone 13 is offered at 909 euros on its official website, which is 110 euros less than the iPhone 14 for a technically identical product, with the same lifespan and the same daily experience.
We had ourselves concluded in our tests that these latest iPhone 14 and 14 Plus were positioned at prices far too high to find takers. Apple can certainly count on subsidized sales (with operators) but there are limits not to be exceeded.
This is even more true in an unfavorable economic context such as the one we are experiencing today. In the midst of the global economic crisis, Apple is drastically increasing the prices of barely more advanced products with the aim of maintaining its margins. If this strategy has worked for several years, consumers have obviously chosen to say “stop”.
