Basing his evaluation on slipping ship instances from Apple’s ordering net web page, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo believes that Apple is seeing decrease demand for the high-end iPhone 16 fashions and better gross sales for the common iPhone 16, together with the iPhone 16 Plus.
Whereas these claims are solely based mostly on preliminary demand, Kuo claims Apple offered round 37 million models on the brand new iPhone’s first weekend. He says that that is down 12.7 p.c from the iPhone 15 lineup debut.
The iPhone 16 Plus, which begins at $899, is up 48 p.c over the iPhone 15 Plus from final 12 months, regardless of your complete new lineup retaining the identical value factors. The common iPhone 16’s preliminary gross sales are up 10 p.c over the iPhone 15’s debut weekend.
In the meantime, the iPhone 16 Professional at a base value of $999 is down 27 p.c in comparison with final 12 months, whereas the Professional Max — which begins at $1199 — is down 16 p.c, in keeping with Kuo’s evaluate. One issue which may be weighing into the debut ordering equation is the truth that all fashions can be getting the much-hyped Apple Intelligence options as they roll out over the subsequent few months.
The truth that one of many marquee options of iOS 18 won’t be transport with the brand new models however will roll out in phases over the rest of 2024 and early 2025 might also be an element. That mentioned, the sturdy enthusiasm for the Plus mannequin, together with the smaller discount within the Professional Max’s gross sales, reveals that many early adopters nonetheless do favor the larger-sized iPhones.
Kuo believes that Apple roughly doubled manufacturing on the preliminary iPhone 16 Professional Max mannequin in comparison with the iPhone 15 Professional Max, making ready some six million models forward of the debut. Apple tends to not focus on actual gross sales figures, and it’s too early to inform if demand will proceed within the present sample, or change as the brand new iPhones develop into available in shops.
The upcoming vacation season is prone to play an enormous function in early demand for all the new iPhone fashions. The combination of prime sellers usually change by the tip of Apple’s fiscal first quarter.