Renowned analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, a regular supply chain insider for Apple products, has released a sales analysis report for the iPhone 16 in the initial period following Apple’s launch for pre-orders starting on Friday, September 13 in over 58 countries including Thailand.
Since Apple hasn’t disclosed the sales figures in the first week of a new iPhone model launch in several years, Kuo explained his method of calculating the numbers. He utilized the production order numbers for the iPhone before sales began and the delivery timeframe displayed on Apple’s website during the first 48 hours to estimate the reservation figures.
Kuo’s findings reveal that a total of approximately 37 million units of the iPhone 16 across all models were pre-ordered in the past week, showing a 12.7% decrease compared to the iPhone 15. This decline is primarily attributed to reduced orders for the Pro models, with the delivery time being shorter than that of the iPhone 15 Pro.
The analyst anticipates that the lower pre-order numbers for the iPhone 16 Pro stem from a key selling point in this model, the Apple Intelligence, which is currently only functional in English, impacting the demand from China where competitors offer AI services in Chinese.
Nevertheless, Kuo mentions that the production orders for the iPhone 16 have not decreased at present, and Apple is expected to stimulate sales in the year-end campaign. Furthermore, an increase in demand is foreseen once Apple Intelligence becomes available for general usage in the fourth quarter of this year.
TLDR: Ming-Chi Kuo’s analysis reveals a decrease in iPhone 16 pre-orders, primarily due to limited language support for Apple Intelligence, with expectations of sales boost towards the end of the year upon wider availability.
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