Apple is making some big changes to its iPhone 12 family production plans

by Adrian Diaconescu

Jan 20, 2021, 12:03 PM

Apple is making some big changes to its iPhone 12 family production plans

While Apple didn't exactly reinvent the wheel (or the notched slab form factor) for the corona-delayed iPhone 12 lineup, said high-end handset family did manage to surprise some folks (who had been living under a rock) by including a grand total of four main members, up from three for the iPhone 11 roster and just two for 2016's iPhone 7 "family", for instance.

Of course, it was fairly easy to anticipate some iPhone 12 variants would prove considerably more popular than others, but given the extremely vigorous online support for compact devices repeatedly expressed by many hardcore "iFans" over the last few years, we never expected the "mini" model to completely misfire.

As it turns out, however, these prospective iPhone 12 mini buyers were not as much numerous as they were vocal, failing to get the 5.4-inch Apple A14 Bionic powerhouse up to the sales numbers initially envisioned by both the Cupertino-based tech giant and industry pundits.

In line with several previous reports, a new Morgan Stanley investment note essentially confirms the unexpected success of the iPhone 12 Pro at the expense of its diminutive non-Pro sibling, prompting Apple to adjust the manufacturing allocation of the 6.1-inch model with three rear-facing cameras and a LiDAR scanner by around two million units for the March quarter while reducing the 12 mini's production goal in the same timeframe by... two million.

Evidently, the iPhone 12 Pro is significantly exceeding Apple's original expectations, especially in major Western markets like the US, where the handset arguably delivers the best quality/price ratio of the entire family at a $999 and up MSRP. Available for a reasonable but perhaps not reasonable enough $699 in its entry-level configuration stateside, the iPhone 12 mini may have well found a little more success in countries like China.

The iPhone 12 lineup performed particularly well around those parts in the final quarter of 2020, according to both this new report and a different one from last week. Unfortunately for Apple, its impressive global growth at a time of great struggles for arch-rivals Samsung and Huawei could be stifled by component shortages that continue to make it difficult for the company to keep up with demand, especially as far as 12 Pro and 12 Pro Max variants are concerned.