Last Friday, Apple began accepting pre-orders for the iPhone 16 family of smartphones, sales of which will begin on September 20. As TF Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo noted on Sunday, overall demand for the new series was below expectations. Kuo said his findings were based on “supply chain research” and estimates of delivery times listed on Apple’s online store.
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According to Kuo’s calculations, sales of all four iPhone 16 models reached about 37 million units in the first weekend after pre-orders began, which is almost 13% less than the sales of the iPhone 15 series in the same period last year. The analyst noted that the main reason for the decline was lower demand for Pro models. First weekend sales of the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max were down 27% and 16%, respectively, compared to iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max sales last year.
While the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus models saw higher demand than the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus during their opening weekend, it was not enough to offset the lower demand for the iPhone 16 Pro models, Kuo said.
According to the analyst, the reason for lower-than-expected demand for the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max models is the lack of Apple Intelligence AI functionality at launch. As you know, support for certain functions of Apple Intelligence artificial intelligence will appear in new products along with the release of iOS 18.1 in October, and only in the USA, and in other countries much later. In addition, Kuo noted the impact of “fierce competition” in China from local vendors on the demand for iPhone smartphones.