In latest years, Apple’s Pro iPhone fashions have sometimes been its greatest sellers, however whereas that is nonetheless seemingly the case this yr, preliminary demand for the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max is reportedly a lot decrease than for his or her predecessors.
Ming-Chi Kuo – an analyst with an awesome observe report for Apple data – has carried out a provide chain survey to estimate the pre-order numbers of every iPhone 16 mannequin, and has discovered that the iPhone 16 Pro is down 27% relative to its predecessor, at 9.8 million models pre-ordered, and the iPhone 16 Pro Max is down 16%, with 17.1 million models pre-ordered.
This seemingly got here as a shock to Apple, notably within the case of the iPhone 16 Pro Max, as the corporate reportedly produced round 6 million models of the telephone forward of pre-orders, which is 106% greater than it produced of the iPhone 15 Pro Max.
Still, it’s not all unhealthy information for Apple, as a result of whereas preliminary demand for the Pro fashions is seemingly down, the usual iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus are reportedly proving extra common than their predecessors, with pre-orders of the iPhone 16 mentioned to be up by 10%, with 7.3 million models pre-ordered, and the iPhone 16 Plus’s mentioned to be up by 48%, although nonetheless with the bottom demand total, at 2.6 million pre-ordered models.
But in keeping with Kuo, that hasn’t made up for the lowered curiosity within the Pro fashions, with the iPhone 16 line as a complete estimated to have offered round 37 million models to date, which is down 12.7% from the iPhone 15 sequence on its first weekend.
Missing a headline characteristic
So why is that this? Kuo highlights the dearth of Apple Intelligence at launch as being a significant component. This suite of AI options is without doubt one of the key promoting factors of the iPhone 16 line, however no Apple Intelligence options shall be out there till October, and even then, we received’t initially get all of the options Apple has revealed.
Kuo additionally means that intense competitors from Chinese telephone manufacturers has impacted pre-order numbers.
Beyond that, we’d guess the usual and Plus fashions may be proving extra common than their predecessors as a result of they’ve extra in frequent with the Pro telephones. They have the brand new Camera Control button for instance, which Apple may have simply made unique to the Pro telephones.
They additionally gained the Action button from final yr’s Pro fashions, they usually have a brand new A18 chipset somewhat than inheriting the A17 Pro from the iPhone 15 Pro line. All of this might make the Pro fashions really feel much less important, so it’s no actual shock that pre-orders for these are decrease than for final yr’s fashions.
Still, Kuo predicts that demand for the iPhone 16 line as a complete may properly enhance later within the yr, as soon as Apple Intelligence does begin rolling out, and as soon as we enter the year-end vacation season.