When a COVID-19 outbreak in China impacted Apple’s manufacturing partner Foxconn this fall, the company encountered difficulties with the iPhone 14—particularly the Pro and Pro Max. As more predictions of difficulties with the iPhone have emerged, the AAPL company’s stock has now fallen to a 52-week low, representing a value loss of $1 trillion.
Apple issued a warning to customers and investors back in November about how the political unrest in China was limiting its ability to produce enough iPhone 14 Pro units to meet demand.
The number of iPhone 14 units Apple will sell in 2022 has been revised in a new report from TrendForce, which also predicts that the company will continue to face difficulties into 2023.
According to TrendForce, the Foxconn plant producing the iPhone 14 has not exceeded 70% of its capacity utilization since October. Despite assistance from a different Foxconn factory, it seems to have fallen short. Given the current circumstances, TrendForce has revised its estimate of the total number of shipments of all iPhone 14 models in 2022 down to 78.1 million units.
According to TrendForce, China’s labor shortage problems began in December and “could get worse” in the first quarter of 2023. In light of this, the company revised its Q1 2023 estimate for iPhone shipments downward to 47 million units, representing a 22% YoY decline.
On January 3, 2022, when Apple became the first company to reach a $3 trillion valuation, it was at a 52-week high of just under $183. Given that AAPL’s market capitalization is currently $2 trillion, the estimated total loss in value for 2022 is $1 trillion.
