Weak iPhone 14 demand sees Apple slash orders, report says

(Image credit: iMore / Stephen Warwick)

Apple has reportedly slashed its iPhone 14 orders with manufacturers by as many as three million units. The news comes as Apple announces that it can't build some models quickly enough, but it's thought that others are proving less popular than expected.

Apple has announced that supply issues will make iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro models harder to come by this holiday season, but a new report claims that the lackluster sales of iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus devices mean that overall order numbers are being reduced.

Cutbacks

Bloomberg reports that Apple had previously aimed for around 90 million new iPhones to be built, but that's now been reduced to 87 million. "The reduction is primarily due to softer demand for the iPhone 14 and 14 Plus models," the report notes.

Apple has struggled to keep its Pro iPhones in stock since they were refreshed in September, and a new COVID-19 lockdown at the world's largest iPhone manufacturing plant isn't helping. But it's the cheaper iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus — the first 6.7-inch non-Pro iPhone to date — that are proving more difficult to sell. The iPhone 14 Plus in particular was expected to be popular, but Bloomberg reports that even buyers in China aren't buying in the numbers previously expected.

"Sales of the iPhone 14 and Plus have rapidly cooled since their launch and the slowdown is deepening in China," Bloomberg cites a Jefferies analyst as having said.

Apple's shares took a hit in pre-market trading as a result of its iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max warning ahead of what is traditionally a strong period for the company.

The iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus don't benefit from a number of features that Apple's best iPhones got this year, including the Dynamic Island, faster A16 Bionic chip, and Always-On Display. The new iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max also gained an improved 48-megapixel main camera, too.

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.