The Banana Yellow iPhone 14 Is Yet Another Apple Marketing Trick
Apple has released a yellow iPhone 14, continuing its recent tradition of adding a new color option to the latest iPhone lineup every spring to keep consumers interested.
The banana yellow color is only available for iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus, not the Pro models. Pre-orders will open tomorrow (March 10 and the actual phone will be available on March 14. The iPhone 14 lineup originally came in five color options: black, blue, white, red and purple.
Apple releases a new iPhone every September, usually with a new set of color options. It’s unusual for a popular electronic gadget to introduce a new color several months after launch, but the trick has become an effective marketing practice for Apple to boost demand in what could otherwise be a slow season for iPhone sales.
Last year, Apple released a green iPhone 13 and an “alpine green” iPhone 13 Pro, adding to the lineup’s black, blue, starlight (an off-white color), red and pink color options. In 2021, Apple introduced a purple iPhone 12 seven months after the phone’s initial launch in late 2020.
This year, in addition to the yellow iPhone 14, Apple also released several new spring-themed color options for the Apple Watch band and silicone iPhone cases.
Yellow iPhones have had mixed success
Apple’s choice of bright yellow is somewhat surprising because the color wasn’t historically popular among iPhone buyers. The company last offered a yellow phone in 2019 with the release of iPhone 11, which also came in black, white, red, purple and green.
According to a survey conducted by MacRumors, a website for all Apple-related information, in March 2020, yellow was the least popular color with only 3.5 percent of respondents voting for it as their favorite iPhone color. The most popular color was red, which had nearly 30 percent votes, followed by black and white.
Other consumer surveys have shown iPhone shoppers generally prefer neutral colors such as black and white. Purple, which is rumored to be Apple founder Steve Jobs’s favorite color, also has a loyal following. Purple is available for iPhone 14, iPhone 12 and iPhone 11.
Aside from iPhone 11, Apple’s only other yellow phones were 2018’s iPhone XR and 2012’s iPhone 5c. But neither model was part of the main iPhone lineup of that year. They were marketed as cheaper alternatives to 2018’s iPhone XS and 2012’s iPhone 5, respectively.