Apple's Reportedly Flat iPhone Production Target for 2022 Isn't a Good Sign

Apple, one of the biggest tech companies on the planet, reportedly doesn't think it will sell any more iPhones this year than it did last year, despite rumors that the iPhone 14 will come with some major improvements (via MacRumors While it may not necessarily be a canary in a coal mine (or that a waffle house is closing) that the world will continue to deteriorate, Apple forecasts that sales of its most popular product will not increase, indicating that Maybe the company is relatively pessimistic about the state of things in the near future.

According to Bloomberg, the company is asking its suppliers to make about 220 million iPhones, which is similar to the number requested by it in 2021. This runs contrary to predictions from some analysts, which estimate Apple will need to make about 20 million more phones. This year as compared to last year.

It's easy to see why. The iPhone 14 Pro is expected to ditch the notch (meaning it will be pretty clear who has the new phone and who doesn't, which was not necessarily the case with the iPhone 13), and compared to what Apple has to offer. is less expensive. Expecting bigger phones seems like a recipe for success.

But good recipes can be ruined if you add something gross to them. And while some of us hoped that 2022 might mean the nightmare is over, a war, the ongoing COVID-19 lockdown, and skyrocketing inflation pretty much ended it.

Of course, Apple's predictions aren't infallible. We've seen too many reports that production cuts have been made, underestimating how many phones will be needed. It is always possible that Apple is wrong and many people will want to buy the phone in spite of everything. The public may not be watching all doom and gloom.

But it could have gone the other way. Well-known analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said on Twitter that he believes "the challenges of the iPhone 14 will come from the demand side rather than the supply side." In other words, he thinks Apple will be able to meet its production targets (though he says it's got some catching up to do thanks to the lockdown), but even those goals have been met. also not completed. There could be many more.