Getting an iPhone 14 Pro for Christmas will be a miracle at this point. The new lockdowns in China impacted production in early November. At the time, you could still place an order with Apple and get a comfortable delivery estimate. But shipping times slid beyond December 25th about ten days later. Third-party retailers soon confirmed that iPhone 14 Pro stock is scarce.
A new report claims that iPhone 14 Pro supply seems to be improving. And that means you’d get better delivery estimates. But scoring one of the two Pro models in time for Christmas seems impossible at this time.
We explained a few days ago that you might have the chance to score a Black Friday iPhone 14 Pro deal, but you’d have to compromise on colors and storage. And you’d have to agree to carrier deals.
Separately, protests erupted in China over the most recent COVID lockdowns. Moreover, thousands of employees at the Zhengzhou iPhone factory quit their jobs after the new restrictions. This is another factor limiting Apple’s ability to meet iPhone 14 Pro demand.
Still, the iPhone 14 Pro lead times are improving in almost all regions except China. The news comes from JP Morgan’s Apple Product Availability Tracker, via Apple Insider.
Waiting times for the iPhone 14 models align with their predecessors at this time of year. But the iPhone 14 Pros have longer lead times than the iPhone 13 Pros.
The iPhone 14 and 14 Plus are the only models you can still buy in time for Christmas. But lead times grew for the two handsets globally in week 12. We’re looking at 3 days of waiting compared to 2 days for week 11. The iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max saw lead times reduced to 35 days from 41 days a week ago.
In the US, iPhone 14 and 14 Plus lead times are stable at 4 days compared to 3 days last week. The Pro models have waiting times of 33 days, down from 40 days last week.
In China, the cheaper models have a lead time of 2 days. But the iPhone 14 Pro models have a 43-day delivery estimate, the longest lead time in JP Morgan’s tracker.
Europeans from Germany and the UK have to wait 4 days for a non-Pro iPhone 14, up from 1 day last week. The iPhone 14 Pros have 32- and 33-day lead times, down from 39- and 40-day estimates a week prior.
Regardless of the market, buyers will still need to wait more than a month for an iPhone 14 Pro model. This puts a delivery between Christmas and New Year’s Eve in a best-case scenario.
JP Morgan sees the improvements as “encouraging trends,” and the analysts think Apple has overcome the worst. But they warn that it’ll take time for Apple to balance supply and demand, as the situation in China is still uncertain.
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