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The iPhone 16 series is close, and Apple wants to reduce the iPhone 15 series stock, but the sales figures do not match those expectations. Instead, previous-generation models are still capturing the interest of users. The only exception is the iPhone 15 Pro Max.
Lower sales of the current generation of iPhones are normal when there is little left until the launch of a new one. However, the drop in iPhone 15 series sales seems more pronounced than estimated. CIRP published its latest market research on the commercial performance of iPhones during the third quarter after the launch of the previous generation. The report shows that even the iPhone 13 outsold one of the iPhone 15 models.
iPhone 15 sales during its third quarter were disappointing; users turned to older models
For the period studied, the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus took 17% of Apple’s smartphone sales. This is the same as the iPhone 15 Pro sold (17%) and only 2% less than the sales of the vanilla iPhone 15 (19%). The Plus model was the least sold in the iPhone 15 series during its third quarter of existence, reaching only 8%. On the other hand, sales of the iPhone 15 Pro Max showed better performance, reaching 22% of the total.
However, it is interesting that models even older than the iPhone 14 series have a notable presence on the list. More specifically, the vanilla iPhone 13 captured 10% of iPhone sales during the period studied. This is more than what the most modern iPhone 15 Plus sold. The latest iPhone SE (5%) and the iPhone 13 Mini (1%) also appear in the ranking.
Lack of innovation would be one of the reasons behind
As mentioned before, the drop in sales of current-gen iPhones is normal when the new ones are close. However, there are more factors that could be behind users’ greater interest in older models. For example, the conservative line in terms of innovation that Apple has been following in its devices. Meanwhile, the iPhone 15 Pro Max’s healthier sales could be due to its tetraprism periscope camera. Apple is said to keep the same sensor on the iPhone 16 Pro Max, so there are users who will turn to the previous model to save some money.
Meanwhile, Apple wants to attract users to the iPhone 16 series by adding Gen-AI capabilities with its Apple Intelligence suite. The company would even implement the latest Bionic Pro chips in the vanilla and Plus models as well. The report claims that Apple has ordered the production of 90 million iPhone 16 devices by 2024 alone. So, sales expectations seem quite high.