Wow – Apple wasn’t kidding when they said things were going to get backlogged. Here is their full release (which came out minutes after we released last week’s availability charts):
“COVID-19 restrictions have temporarily impacted the primary iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max assembly facility located in Zhengzhou, China. The facility is currently operating at significantly reduced capacity. As we have done throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, we are prioritizing the health and safety of the workers in our supply chain.
We continue to see strong demand for iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max models. However, we now expect lower iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max shipments than we previously anticipated and customers will experience longer wait times to receive their new products.
We are working closely with our supplier to return to normal production levels while ensuring the health and safety of every worker.”Last week (we were in the 8th of availability) we cited carrier-specific shortages with the iPhone 14 Pro model and chronic/ worsening availability trends for the iPhone Pro Max. We have included both PDFs at the bottom of this report for ease of comparison.
This week, the best way to describe the backlog is “things are bad everywhere.” If you want the capabilities of the iPhone 14 Pro and are willing to fork over extra money for the 1 TB storage level, there’s a few days of stock available at T-Mobile and Verizon. Other than that, it’s a four week (minimum) wait for the iPhone 14 Pro.
The iPhone 14 Pro Max was already constrained, so the shock of a delay is muted for certain colors/ sizes. We are seeing 2023 delivery dates for certain AT&T color/ memory variants. It’s looking pretty grim, however.
This has negative implications for T-Mobile (the historical beneficiary of switching) and likely Spectrum/ Xfinity/ Altice. To some extent, it will change messaging for AT&T and Verizon (more muted promotions?). Anyone planning on a big switching event needs to pivot to Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) promotions because inventory has dried up. Jeff Moore over at Wave7 is also reporting that Straight Talk (meaning Walmart) is showing all iPhone 14 models as “Out of Stock.” Yikes.
More next week. Again, the last two weeks of availability have been posted below for comparison purposes.
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