Apple's iPhone X outsold iPhone 8 series 2-to-1 in US during record-breaking Q4, report sa...

Posted:
in iPhone edited January 2018
Bucking -- seemingly spurious -- claims that Apple is cutting iPhone X production due to weak demand, a report from Counterpoint on Wednesday found the flagship iPhone outsold its iPhone 8 and 8 Plus siblings by a 2-to-1 ratio. And it wasn't because iPhone sales flagged.




According to statistics gathered by the research firm's Market Pulse program, Apple sold a record 22.4 million iPhones in the U.S. over the fourth calendar quarter of 2017. The performance garnered Apple its highest ever marketshare, up to 44 percent from a previous high of 37 percent.

Notably, Counterpoint's data casts doubt on an ongoing narrative claiming iPhone X sales have been less than optimal. Research Director Neil Shah said worldwide iPhone X sell through has been "softer than expected" due to its high price tag, but the handset it performing well in the U.S. where consumers are willing to pay for the Apple ecosystem.

"During Q4 2017, all the three new iPhones were strong sellers -- the three were the top three selling phones in the U.S. market," Shah said. "However, since its launch on Nov. 3, the iPhone X outsold the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus by a 2:1 margin. What this means is the super-premium segment (above $800) has grown from almost 0 percent in previous years to 25 percent share of the total smartphones sold in USA during Q4 2017, which speaks volumes for the potential of USA market and the U.S. consumers' buying power."

Adding color to the hard data, Research Director Jeff Fieldhack noted Apple grew its sell through by 20 percent in a U.S. market that grew only 2 percent over the same period.

"This means Apple has been successful to take share away from Samsung in the premium," he said.

Fieldhack said the success of iPhone X, as well as iPhone 8 Plus, will help boost ASPs for the quarter. Of the 22.4 million iPhones sold, more than 10.5 million were priced above $850, meaning Apple generated nearly $9 billion from premium handset sales in the U.S.

Earlier this week, Nikkei issued a report claiming Apple slashed iPhone X production orders in half due to "slower than expected holiday sales" the U.S., China and Europe. A separate report from The Wall Street Journal echoed the narrative, but as AppleInsider pointed out, the numbers don't add up.

In any case, industry watchers will likely receive clues as to iPhone X's performance when Apple reveals earnings for its first fiscal quarter of 2018 tomorrow. The company does not normally break down sales by model, but overall iPhone sales metrics should provide ample fodder for analyst estimates.

AppleInsider will be covering Apple's ensuing earnings conference call live from 2 p.m. Pacific, 5 p.m. Eastern.
watto_cobra

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 17
    chasmchasm Posts: 3,273member
    This report matches my (anecdotal) evidence as a traveler: the iPhone X sells great in wealthy countries, the iPhone 8 (and the older models still available) do better in “middle class” areas. So the claims from some quarters that the iPhone X is a flop *can* be true, depending on where you are looking for your cherry-picked data. Likewise, the annual story about Apple cutting production of the iPhone X is probably also (partially) true — in that Apple **always** cuts production of its flagship phone model as it heads into the spring and summer quarters, which **always** have significantly lower sales than the holiday quarter. It overproduces phones (on purpose) to help meet demand before and just after Christmas, then ramps down for the second half of the iPhone cycle. Every year. There is absolutely nothing (at least so far) to suggest that this is either unusual or that Apple is going to miss its guidance — there is only spin from those who try to manipulate the stock (or just mindlessly bash Apple because they don’t have anything substantive). With three flagship phones (and two similar models now on mid-range pricing), Apple will almost certainly have a record fiscal 2018 all around, and as we’ve seen the three current flagships are gaining against the Android army in key markets worldwide, and the overall ecosystem seems to be as healthy as ever, indeed growing by leaps and bounds. Whether you judge by profits, revenue, market share, or just total iPhones sold, there’s no way 2018 won’t be a year of growth — maybe even another record-setting year — all around, unless you try to play games with extremely selective data sets. That’s the bottom line.
    bikertwinradarthekatapple jockeymagman1979LukeCagefruitstandninjaloquiturStrangeDaysnetmageflashfan207
  • Reply 2 of 17
    roakeroake Posts: 809member
    Today IS a good day to buy! (Said in my best Worf voice).
    magman1979Anilu_777quadra 610suddenly newtonfruitstandninjawatto_cobrarob55StrangeDaysbrucemc
  • Reply 3 of 17
    NY1822NY1822 Posts: 621member
    "Director Neil Shah said worldwide iPhone X sell through has been "softer than expected" due to its high price tag"

    ** yet an article from this morning on AppleInsider claims X outsold the 8 in India...

    so hopefully it did everywhere
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 4 of 17
    eriamjheriamjh Posts: 1,630member
    The reports of iPhone X sales being poor are pure stock manipulation.

    magman1979suddenly newtonracerhomie3watto_cobra
  • Reply 5 of 17
    Apple should phase out the iPhone 8 style soon. After I got a taste of iPhone X, I would never want to go back to the old design. iPhone X feels so fluid after using it for a month now. The edge to edge screen is so spoiled.
    magman1979king editor the grateflashfan207watto_cobra
  • Reply 6 of 17
    melgrossmelgross Posts: 33,510member
    Boy, as usual, we won’t know the reality until Apple reports.

    but it’s just so odd. One would think that all of these big organizations would have similar information from their sources.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 7 of 17
    The headline for this article screams "America is the World". There is no contradiction in the figures and no place for the headline. 
  • Reply 8 of 17
    I was using 5S when the announcement occurred. I carefully weighed the technical points of all the models, and quickly realized the non-X phones looked stupidly old and oldly stupid. 
  • Reply 9 of 17
    Bucking -- seemingly spurious -- claims that Apple is cutting iPhone X production due to weak demand, a report from Counterpoint on Wednesday found the flagship iPhone outsold its iPhone 8 and 8 Plus siblings by a 2-to-1 ratio.
    Well, they are called Counterpoint!
    baconstangwatto_cobra
  • Reply 10 of 17
    And supposedly Qualcomm and Broadcom said they had reduced orders from a large client which of course Wall Street is assuming is Apple. Good lord. I’ve never seen one company garner so much speculation before an earnings release. It’s ridiculous. The only numbers that matter are what Apple reports Thursday. Also if the March quarter was going to be the disaster all this chatter suggests wouldn’t Apple need to pre-warn with a statement? I know they haven’t provided guidance for March quarter yet but if they were going to report guidance way down from the prior year March quarter wouldn’t they need to pre-warn about it?
    LukeCage
  • Reply 11 of 17
    bluefire1bluefire1 Posts: 1,301member
    Guess political fake news extends right into the tech world.
    What a surprise.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 12 of 17
    NY1822NY1822 Posts: 621member
    For a company that has such a bleak future as lots of pundits seem to have lately, Apple sure does a lot of expanding, building, renovating, buying land, and hiring....

    The problem with Apple stock is that it's too easy to analyze...the cavemen on Wall Street can figure it out too easily...Stocks like Amazon, Microsoft can manipulate their numbers and cavemen don't dig deep
  • Reply 13 of 17
    gatorguygatorguy Posts: 24,176member
    This is basically a Rorschach test. People look at it and see what they want to see.

    Give Apple a few more hours and they'll add some clarity. 
    edited February 2018 rogifan_new
  • Reply 14 of 17
    jdgazjdgaz Posts: 403member
    I could not be happier with my X. Just wish my iPad worked the same way with face detection and elimination of the home button. Its less than optimal to have 2 use interfaces.
    netmage
  • Reply 15 of 17
    eightzeroeightzero Posts: 3,056member
    jdgaz said:
    I could not be happier with my X. Just wish my iPad worked the same way with face detection and elimination of the home button. Its less than optimal to have 2 use interfaces.
    Wait...
    cornchip
  • Reply 16 of 17
    brucemcbrucemc Posts: 1,541member
    Sifting through the tea leaves of information, and getting insight from some specific Apple-focused (non Wall Street) analysts, 
    - iPhoneX share likely higher than expected in high priced countries, as well as China.  Should have a big impact on iPhone ASP.
    - X will sell higher in the first introduction quarter where you get more of the the enthusiast upgraders, but then due to price drops off a fair bit in following quarters where the 8 series, and older models, dominate
    - iPhone 8 series doing well - with iPhone 8/8+ and X doing much better than iPhone 7 series last year
    - Other product categories all expected to show growth

    It seems the market is pricing in Apple potentially reporting disappointing earnings, while some reputable Apple-focused watchers predicting Apple might exceed the top range of revenue guidance.

    Apple will generate massive amounts of free cash this past quarter, and together with bringing the majority of the foreign cash back for share buybacks, will be the long term catalyst for share growth.
  • Reply 17 of 17
    tmaytmay Posts: 6,310member
Sign In or Register to comment.