High demand for iPhone 14 Pro and the flagship iPhone 14 Pro X during the pre-order period has pushed delivery times in China out by up to seven weeks, bucking the trend of weak consumer demand amid the country’s slowing economy.
Ben Jiang for South China Morning Post:
Apple’s new iPhone 14 series smartphones unveiled last Wednesday have proven so hot in China that a deluge of pre-orders crashed the tech giant’s online services and pushed shipments out five to seven weeks beyond the September 16 launch date for the Pro and Pro Max, the two most premium models.
By Saturday, 24 hours after pre-orders opened, Chinese consumers had placed more than 2 million orders for iPhone 14 devices through the official Apple Store on JD.com, continuing the strong demand that JD saw last year for pre-orders of the iPhone 13. Prices for the latest devices are largely in line with last year’s models, with a mark-up of a few hundred yuan for some configurations.
A significant portion of the pre-orders were for the two Pro models. The iPhone 14 Pro had more than 1 million pre-orders on JD, while the Pro Max had nearly 800,000.
Continued enthusiasm for Apple’s latest handsets bucks the trend of weakening consumer sentiment in China amid a slowing economy. It suggests the Cupertino, California-based firm is cementing its advantage in the high-end segment as local rivals in the world’s largest smartphone market struggle to catch up.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo’s first weekend iPhone 14 series pre-order survey and analysis states:
[T]he iPhone 14 series product mix improves and iPhone 14 Pro Max pre-order is better vs. iPhone 13 Pro Max… The delivery time for iPhone 14 Pro Max and 14 Pro is longer than four weeks (Pro Max/Pro to be about six/five weeks).
If you’re going to buy a smartphone, that you will likely use many times combined for hours per day, you may as well treat yourself the very best, the 6.7-inch flagship iPhone 14 Pro Max!
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Holding on to my iPhone 13 Pro. Bought mine in full last December. Upgraded from 10S Max.