Apple Tells iPhone Makers to Boost Production, Report Says

Apple has reportedly told suppliers to make 90 million new iPhones this year, in line with 2021 production levels, a report from Seeking Alpha said.

This comes with the company trying to build 220 million iPhones total in 2022, which is the same amount built in 2021.

Apple usually doesn’t tell how many iPhones it sells. It usually rolls out a new model of its signature phone in September or October, in an attempt to add more sales for the holiday shopping seasons.

The report noted that Apple might end up raising the average selling price of the tentatively named iPhone 14 by as much as 15% over the price of the previous one.

And if the company does add more production for the iPhone in the next few months, it would come as Foxconn, one of the biggest suppliers, has said it’s seeing less consumer demand for smartphones.

Apple recently saw its revenue growth slow to 2% year-over-year, hitting $83 billion — a change from past periods where the growth rate was over 35%.

This comes as Apple wants to pivot to being more of a services company, in an ecosystem where the devices are less of a big deal.

As this is going on, iPhone revenues were up 3%, but Macs were down 10% year-over-year, while iPad sales fell 2%.

The company’s big bright spot has been services, in which it saw a 12% boost in sales, hitting over $19 billion. That was a slowdown from the 27% growth the company saw there at the same quarter in 2021.

See also: Apple Services Revenues Gain 12% as Paid Subscriptions Top 860M

According to CEO Tim Cook, the company saw more demand for content across news, fitness and gaming, which helped with the services revenue. And payments activity was at record highs.

The company did see supply chain challenges, and it said there had been rising costs for components and operational inputs.