the iPhone 14 series of mobile phones officially started pre-sale on Apple’s official website. Due to a large number of people snapping up, Apple’s official website was paralyzed for about 10 minutes. In the context of the decline in mobile phone shipments and volume, Apple’s popularity is even more staggering.
iPhone 14 sales are dominated by Pro
At the same time, the debate on Apple’s “precise knife method” to harvest users has not stopped. Experts pointed out that Apple’s development strategy from products to users is more worthy of attention than the obvious marketing strategy.
Panic buying
Since Apple held a new product launch conference on September 8, a new round of panic buying has kicked off. As of September 10, the JD.com platform showed that the iPhone 14 is all out of stock or in the process of purchasing, and more than 1 million users have reserved an iPhone. 14 Pro series. It is understood that the delivery time of the iPhone 14 Pro has been postponed to mid-to-late October, and it needs to wait 5-6 weeks.
iPhone 14 series on Taobao, JD
A reporter from Beijing Business Daily asked about the rush to buy the iPhone 14 series on Taobao, JD. The reporter visited Apple’s offline stores such as Wangfujing and Sanlitun. Since the new machine has not yet arrived, there is currently no crowded situation in the store. Many customers inquired the store staff about the arrival time of the iPhone 14. The store staff suggested that customers book online, and said that it would be equally difficult to buy the goods if they came to the store at the beginning of the sale.
The same is true on Apple’s official website. After logging in, a reporter from Beijing Business Daily found that if the order is placed on September 12, the estimated delivery time for the 256GB version of the iPhone 14 Pro is 5-6 weeks; the estimated delivery time for the 256GB version of the iPhone 14 Pro Max is It is 6-7 weeks; the 256GB version of the iPhone 14 is expected to arrive on September 16; the 256GB version of the iPhone 14 Plus is expected to arrive on October 7.
In fact, some institutions have previously made predictions on the hot sales of the iPhone 14. The CITIC Securities Research Report predicts that Apple’s global shipments in 2022 will be 230 million units. The iPhone 14 series will sell about 83.5 million units in 2022, and the iPhone 14 Max and iPhone 14 Pro are expected to be the best-selling models.
As for whether Apple’s hot sales can lead to a recovery in the mobile phone market, experts say they are not optimistic. Liang Zhenpeng, a senior industrial economic observer, believes that the general trend of global consumer electronics decline may be difficult to reverse. It is undeniable that Apple’s new phone launch may boost mobile phones month-on-month.
Shipments, but as long as there is no subversive innovation in mobile phone products, it will be difficult to completely get out of the downturn. From the perspective of the market environment, with the increase in the number of people’s mobile phone ownership, the sinking market is no longer a blue ocean. Compared with various innovations, the price/performance ratio is more concerned in the sinking market, and some manufacturers also follow “cost reduction” and “replacement”. The idea of winning the market is not good for high-end mobile phones.
Precision Knife
If we say that in the Jobs era, Apple amazed users with the beauty of technology, but now Apple at the helm of Cook is more jokingly called “accurate knife skills” by the market. Can make a considerable number of users pay.
This “knife method” is now more reflected in the differences between the iPhone 14 series and the iPhone 14 Pro series. On September 9, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo released the latest iPhone 14 offline pre-order survey, showing that the iPhone 14 Pro series in China accounted for about 85% of the order allocation, and the iPhone 14 Plus accounted for about 5% of the order allocation, and said that this year’s Pro models Compared with previous years, the proportion of orders is higher, reflecting the changes in Apple’s product segmentation strategy.
iPhone 14 is still equipped with the previous-generation A15 chip
The “Smart Island” design that has attracted much market attention this time is only available in the Pro series. In addition, the iPhone 14 is still equipped with the previous-generation A15 chip, while the Pro series has an A16 chip. From the camera point of view, the Pro series maintains a 3-camera configuration. The 14 has the exact same camera design style and dual-camera configuration as the iPhone 13. In addition, the main camera of the Pro series uses a new 48-megapixel sensor and supports four-pixel integration to output 12-megapixel photos. Better than the iPhone series.
iPhone 14, such as an all-weather display
What’s more worth noting is that the more practical features introduced by Apple this time are also missing on the iPhone 14, such as an all-weather display, adaptive refresh rate, and 2000 nits of outdoor brightness. There are many opinions in the industry that the iPhone 14 series tastes like a chicken rib, and the real weapon to increase shipments and boost Apple’s revenue is the Pro series.
To save money, it is worth noting that the large-screen iPhone 14 plus version and the 6.1-inch standard version are launched at the same time, which may also explain Apple’s urgent psychology to increase sales. After all, according to usual experience, consumers who want to experience 6.7-inch screens tend to have to wait an extra year.
Apple’s marketing strategy
Regarding the controversy surrounding Apple’s marketing strategy, Shen Meng, chief strategist of Guangke Consulting, pointed out that even in the era of Steve Jobs, Apple’s product strategy was not a radical innovation with all the latest achievements, but a market-oriented and commercialized competition.
The principle of “squeezing toothpaste”, the reason why the Jobs era came up with surprises is that after the first generation iPhone came out, Apple was in the ascendant in the mobile phone market, and at the same time, it was inseparable from the east wind of 4G.
Shen Meng said that the reason why Apple’s products are generally perceived to be lacking in innovation is large that Apple’s core products have entered a very mature stage, no longer like the period of high-speed expansion of functions when they first came out, like today’s.
It has been difficult for the scientific community to achieve major achievements in several disciplines by one person as in the past.
As for whether Apple’s “precision knife method” can be used all over the world? Shen Meng believes that Apple pays more attention to continuously improving the user experience during the product maturity cycle so that users can actually use more functions, such as health and safety, which are important aspects of in-depth use. Novelty features, also make no sense.