Apple product manufacture date explained

The serial number of the device that is manufactured by Apple has information on the date of production. Production date is changed once a week. You can learn more about how to decrypt a serial number from the article Deciphering the serial number of iPhone 2010-2020.

 There was information that in 2021 Apple will change the format of the serial number. Serial numbers will not have production date information. And indeed, serial numbers will be assigned randomly. We are waiting for the year 2021.

Where is the date of production in the serial number of the Apple device

DNPCJ3X073N (iPhone11 Model)

The Apple device’s production date is the 4th and 5th digit of the serial number. CJ the first character is always a letter, the second can be either a number or a letter.

Apple Technology Production Date Format

Since the production date has two characters, the following procedure for announcing the production date at Apple is accepted.

The first digit is a year, but not just a year, but a half year, the first 6 months of the year from January to June and the second half year is July-December.
The second letter or number is the week of the year. A year can be 53 weeks. But only 27 characters are used for designation. Changing the first character makes the production date number unique.

Apple Product Date Cycle

Apple is a high-tech company that manufactures electronics. In the modern world, one model of an electronic device is produced no more than 2 years. Therefore, the company is free to reuse the same characters.

At Apple, the year of production is repeated with a cycle of 10 years. For example, from our example, CJ means production date April 2010, April 2020, April 2030.

But we understand that 2030 – the year has not yet come, therefore it is not 2030. It remains 2010 or 2020, but since this is the serial number of the iPhone 11, which began to be produced in 2019, this is a phone model made in 2020.

Apple product manufacturing date 2010 to 2020, table

For convenience, the table below shows the production dates of Apple electronic products (iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch). Using the table, you can easily determine the production date of the device.

IPHONE ASSEMBLY DATE (DATE CODES IN SERIAL NUMBER) 2010-2029