We’re about halfway through the iPhone 14’s inevitable journey from ‘new and shiny’ to ‘old hat’ thanks to the arrival of its even shinier successor. Traditionally, Apple has chosen this moment to launch a fresh new colour to its iPhone range: purple for the iPhone 12, and green for the iPhone 13.
For the iPhone 14? It’s yellow. A really bright yellow.
It looks a bit like someone saw a photo of a banana and tried to replicate the effect on their iPhone with a highlighter pen. Or, if you squint, an extra from the next Minions movie.
Either way, it’s what you’d call an acquired taste. Indeed, it’s striking how little Apple pays attention to the colour in a press release that should be entirely dedicated to it. Most of the text is discussing the abilities of the iPhone 14, which have been public knowledge for six months at this point.
“People love their iPhone and rely on it every day for all that they do, and now there’s an exciting addition to the lineup with a new yellow iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus,” said Apple’s Bob Borchers before moving on to rehash features that are… still the same as they were before.
What’s interesting about this is that while last year’s green colour scheme was available for both Pro and non-Pro models, this time around it’s just for the iPhone 14 and 14 Plus.
That suggests that reports of the iPhone 14 Plus struggling to sell were correct, and this exclusive shade is an attempt to give the cheaper models a bit of a sales uptick.
Indeed, the displays analyst Ross Young said back in November that iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max handsets accounted for 64% of sales despite being in shorter supply at the time. To put that into perspective, the split between iPhone 13 tiers was 51/49.
That’s not too surprising given the iPhone 14 is barely an upgrade on its predecessor, even featuring the same chipset. A bright yellow colour probably won’t make many people overlook that simple fact, but as solutions go, it’s a lot more appealing than a price cut to Apple’s top brass.