iPhone 14 Plus sales below Apple expectations

Although it comes with a big screen, big battery and a relatively good price, the iPhone 14 Plus fails to reach Apple’s hoped-for sales figures, calling into question the continuation of the iPhone Plus series.

Like the iPhone mini, the iPhone Plus series appears to be bringing yet another failure for Apple, with poor sales calling into question the justification for an iPhone 14 Plus sequel.

Abandoned with the iPhone 6 Plus generation, the iPhone Plus brand was “resurrected” only because poor sales with the iPhone 12 mini and iPhone 13 mini indicated a shift in consumer preferences. Like Android users, Apple fans are more attracted to phones with large screens, but at the same time are put off by the exorbitant prices demanded for top-end models. The pendulum swing between small screen – big screen strategy has come relatively easily for Apple, as the American giant already has experience with repackaging previous generation hardware into “new” products that are somewhat cheaper for consumers and much cheaper to manufacture. Thus, the iPhone 14 Plus was supposed to make the bulk of sales for Apple, generating as much profit as possible for each copy sold.

The iPhone 14 Plus comes with a 6.7″ diagonal screen and the same processor as last year’s A15. Other “innovations” such as Dynamic Island, 48MP Wide camera, telephoto feature and Always-on display have been removed.

Given that the 4325 mAh battery powering the iPhone 14 Plus is the largest ever to be introduced inside an iPhone (slightly larger than the battery on the iPhone 14 Pro Max), you’d expect Apple fans to be very interested in the new model. But according to a report picked up by Digitimes, Pegatron, one of the companies Apple turns to for assembling the iPhone 14 Plus, reported a 28.3% drop in revenue for November compared to the same period last year and a 13.9% drop from October. This is partly blamed on weak demand for the iPhone 14 Plus.

The iPhone 14 Plus was released with a suggested retail price of $899. A key detail could be that Apple has delayed the launch of this model until October 7 due to problems in the supply chain. As a consequence some of the buyers who would have been excited to choose the Plus model between the Pro, Pro Max and standard iPhone 14 series have either moved on to something else, or simply lost interest. Either way Apple seems to have missed the ideal moment when the iPhone 14 Plus would have enjoyed maximum visibility in the eyes of consumers.

Already, some experts are already saying that Apple might drop the Plus model in 2023, though we’d expect at least a second attempt, just as they did with the iPhone mini series.