Apple’s Latest iPhones Weren’t Flops After All

iPhone 11 Sales Credit: Hadrian / Shutterstock
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Apple is asking its supply chain partners to bump up production of its iPhone 11 lineup to meet stronger-than-expected demand, according to a new report.

The report bodes well for Apple, as it’s actually a fairly unusual move for the company in iPhone season — at least compared to past years. Here’s what you should know.

Production Bump

Specifically, the Cupertino tech giant has instructed its suppliers to increase their production capacity of the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro by about 10 percent, Nikkei Asian Review reported on Friday.

All in all, that would add an additional 8 million units to Apple’s current production plans. One source with direct knowledge of the situation told Nikkei that the season has been “so far much busier than (they) expected.”

Of course, an increase in production doesn’t necessarily say anything about the demand. It only proves that the demand has been better than expectations and Apple was said to be fairly conservative when placing orders this year.

But Nikkei’s supply chain source notes that with the 10 percent production bump, the total volume of orders for the iPhone 11 lineup will be higher than last year.

Additionally, the report suggests that Apple’s iPhone 11 and the 5.8-inch iPhone 11 Pro are seeing the strongest demand. In fact, Apple is actually revising its iPhone 11 Pro Max production down to balance out supply and demand.

What This Could Mean for Apple

First and foremost, the bump in production confirms that Apple is seeing better-than-expected demand for this year’s iPhones. In fact, the increase suggests that they’re actually selling really, really well in general.

That’s contrary to some previous predictions suggesting that this year would be a subpar one for Apple, since the iPhone 11 lineup was expected to be a much more muted upgrade. That doesn’t appear to be the case.

There may be a few reasons for that. The new camera features and updates on the iPhone 11 Pro models could be significant enough to entice users who have been holding off on upgrading.

The mid-range iPhone 11 model also packs many of those new features and is actually $50 cheaper than last year’s best-selling iPhone XR.

The new devices also feature much better battery life and are a lot more durable and water-resistant than last year’s models. Also, the A13 Bionic is, again, the fastest mobile CPU on the market.

It’s worth noting that those are all features that are important to users (battery life, durability, camera, performance). By focusing on these aspects, Apple may have found a winning strategy with its 2019 iPhones.

While we’ll still have to wait to see how the iPhone 11 does overall, the numbers could also bode well for next year’s Apple handsets — which are largely expected to be a much more significant upgrade.

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