Last year, Apple became a little too optimistic regarding how many iPhones it expected to sell in the first half of 2021. Now its adjusting production, and the iPhone 12 mini suffers the most from this scaling back.
As Nikkei Asia reports, late last year Apple was planning to produce 96 million iPhones during the first six months of 2021. However, a source familiar with the matter has explained, "This year is still not bad, but of course demand for the first half of 2021 is not as high as people were thinking at the end of last year." Apple has since adjusted its expectations down to 75 million iPhones by the middle of the year, but is still working towards a "full-year outlook" of 230 million handsets.
We already knew that the iPhone 12 mini isn't a big hit, but Apple's production adjustments suggest just how unpopular it is. Suppliers have been told to scale back considerably or even stop producing parts for the mini. Production is falling by 70 percent for the tiny smartphone compared to a 20 percent drop across the rest of the iPhone range. Luckily for Apple, some mini components can be used in the larger iPhone 12 models.
There's also bad news for anyone waiting for new MacBooks to appear. Two new MacBook laptops scheduled for mass production in May or June have been pushed back to later in the year. It's unclear which models these are, but a 16-inch MacBook Pro using Apple Silicon seems likely to be one of them.