Apple’s supply chain is gearing up for the production of the iPhone 14, and the smartphone’s new design is now undergoing a production trial run through some of the company’s partners, with many steps and multiple steps ahead of its scheduled fall launch.
A significant investment of the company’s time and resources is to be made. The 2022 model, the “iPhone 14,” has now apparently reached an important stage that involves the well-known Apple supply chain.
According to UDN, the new design has entered the OEM trial production stage, a project site for small-scale production of smartphones. The purpose of the trial production is to confirm the production viability of the new iPhone model design, as well as to try and fix any potential issues before mass production begins.
Apple usually conducts trial production in mid-to-late February, and assembly partner Luxshare Precision is usually involved in the process. Assembly partners typically prepare bills of materials for the project, for future production, as well as calibrating test machines for quality assurance.
However, Luxshare is said to have not received orders for production services so far, leading to suspicions of a change in manufacturing. Previously, the company won its first assembly order for the iPhone 13 Pro and picked up about 3% of orders in 2021.
Since production service orders are considered an indicator of Apple’s future orders, Luxshare is not believed to be heavily involved in the assembly of Pro models, but may provide assembly services for standard models.
In 2021, Luxshare is thought to have assembled about 6.5 million iPhones, and about 3% of its OEM orders.
The “iPhone 14” and “iPhone 14 Pro” slated to arrive in the fall are expected to include some major design changes, including reducing the camera bump and eliminating the infamous bangs in favor of a hole-punch camera.