Apple has been experiencing serious production problems for several months now, and this is unlikely to improve next year as China is still being hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to the Financial Times‘s main iPhone factory, a few weeks ago, violent protests broke out at Apple in Zhengzhou, China. Workers have massively left the factory for fear of contracting Covid-19, while the country is currently experiencing a new wave of infections.
Due to the many restrictive orders issued in China because of the Zero Covid policy and a large number of hospital admissions in the country, the production of iPhone 14 (mainly in China) is greatly affected and potentially Will not be better next year. With China reopening, it is likely that workers in Apple’s factories will regularly be affected by new waves of Covid-19 infections .
As early as December, the supply of iPhone 14 Pro was so limited that Apple could not guarantee delivery before Christmas. Now, when visiting Apple’s official website, iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max always show delivery within one to two weeks, which is not before 2023.
The standard iPhone 14 and 14 Plus models don’t have the problem as they are much less common than the Pro models. The limited feature set has clearly spurred fans to switch to more expensive versions. This is also the reason why Apple has to adjust its target for the iPhone 14 Plus – the product the company has been selling quite slowly.
To try to catch up, Apple has moved part of its production to the Chennai (India) factory, which produces about 5-10% of the iPhone 14. According to analysts at JPMorgan, Apple may manufacture 25% of all iPhones by 2025 in India. This strategy will allow the company to be less dependent on China in the future.
The end of the year is usually the time for Apple to set new sales records, but everything shows that this year’s Christmas has been a dark time for the company.