iPhone XR best-selling iPhone model, claiming 39 percent of US sales in December
In line with claims by Apple, estimates published on Thursday suggest that the iPhone XR was the best-selling iPhone model in the U.S. during the December quarter.
The XR accounted for 39 percent of sales, beating out a combined 26 percent for the XS and XS Max, said Consumer Intelligence Research Partners. The XR was only launched on Oct. 26, partway through the quarter.
Apple has repeatedly said that the XR has topped iPhone sales every week since its launch, without offering precise percentages or unit numbers. The phone was widely expected to beat the XS line, thanks to a cheaper $749 pricetag while sharing features like an edge-to-edge display, Face ID, and an A12 processor. Its sacrifices include OLED technology and a second rear-facing camera sensor.
Some analysts have argued though that even the XR hasn't sold as well as expected, apparently backed by rumors of production cuts, and Apple's own guidance to a $5 billion shortfall that it blamed mostly on weak Chinese iPhone sales.
CIRP tangentially noted that the XS Max outsold the standard XS by a ratio of over 2 to 1. The Max costs at least $1,099 -- but its 6.5-inch screen may have been enough of an upgrade to entice people who would otherwise have skipped 2018 hardware.
CIRP data has been questionable in the past. In the same quarter a year ago it calculated that the iPhone 8 outsold the iPhone X, despite Apple at one point saying the X was outdoing other models on a weekly basis. It maybe that data was skewed by the timing of the X launch, since the iPhone 8 shipped in September 2017 and the X only arrived in November.
The XR accounted for 39 percent of sales, beating out a combined 26 percent for the XS and XS Max, said Consumer Intelligence Research Partners. The XR was only launched on Oct. 26, partway through the quarter.
Apple has repeatedly said that the XR has topped iPhone sales every week since its launch, without offering precise percentages or unit numbers. The phone was widely expected to beat the XS line, thanks to a cheaper $749 pricetag while sharing features like an edge-to-edge display, Face ID, and an A12 processor. Its sacrifices include OLED technology and a second rear-facing camera sensor.
Some analysts have argued though that even the XR hasn't sold as well as expected, apparently backed by rumors of production cuts, and Apple's own guidance to a $5 billion shortfall that it blamed mostly on weak Chinese iPhone sales.
CIRP tangentially noted that the XS Max outsold the standard XS by a ratio of over 2 to 1. The Max costs at least $1,099 -- but its 6.5-inch screen may have been enough of an upgrade to entice people who would otherwise have skipped 2018 hardware.
CIRP data has been questionable in the past. In the same quarter a year ago it calculated that the iPhone 8 outsold the iPhone X, despite Apple at one point saying the X was outdoing other models on a weekly basis. It maybe that data was skewed by the timing of the X launch, since the iPhone 8 shipped in September 2017 and the X only arrived in November.
Comments
But but iPhone XR isn't selling so this good news means XS/XS Max are selling even LESS!!
Yes I said the XR would not sell so Apple is a fails, but now that I've been disproven, XS isn't selling so Apple is a failz!!
A significant number of iPhone users are eithe returning their X model iPhones (based on lack of Home Button - roughly 20%), or not bothering to upgrade (because Apple has priced the new models too high. Again, if the X models actually delivered the same functionality AND more, most people would stay in line, or not return them - but as Apple has provided a user interface regression by removing the Home Button completely, AND has priced these models too high, they are seeing this significant drop in sales, in their premium and upgrade segments.
Publicly, Apple will keep pointing at external factors, because Apple will never admit to have been wrong - that’s fine, that’s just their public stance. Internally, Apple leadership knows fully well they screwed up, and in a big way - the question is just how will they address this, and fix it?
The easiest way is to introduce a fixed, virtual home button (which is what they had planned all along anyways), by beefing up Assistive Touch with a UI API that forces a dedicated location for the Home Button, in the center of the bottom. Easy to do. It’d be like a notch, except in software, so it can move out of the way (visually) when in full-screen horizontal mode (like viewing video).
This is would be extremely easy to implement, and what The Old Apple would have done, under Steve, beginning with the iPhone X.
Now, by re-introducing the Home Button (and then can keep the gestures, despite being blatantly stolen from Android, which uses the exact same gestures), and performing impressive theatric by introducing “There’s No Place Like Home”, they would effectively turn this around, and get a huge number of customer that are ‘on hold’ to whip out their credit cards - because this sort of software fix would make all the existing models usable to the demographic currently holding back.
Future iPhone models would have a slight depression in the glass, or an etched circle, where the Home Button would be located.
It would be an easy fix, in software, and the only thing standing in the way are internal, personal politics.
Since Apple has all the sales data, I have to believe the SE form factor didnt sell as well as the bloggers and commenters wish it had.
Jobs on why they discontinued the Xserve: "Hardly anyone was buying them."
Yes, please cite your data. We've been reading every article on this site for years and don't recall those stories.
The X outsold the 8 every single week it was available. That is indisputable fact, as explained clearly by Cook. The market spoke.
As for your Home Button fantasies -- never gonna happen, my guy. Sorry. Change is hard, but once you decide to embrace it you will get better, I promise.
This can be interpreted in many ways. Maybe it’s strictly price driven because people don’t want to pay $1000 for their phone. It may simply be a value decision for the reasons listed above and people are buying the Xs Max because the larger screen is worth it for them despite the price. Maybe it’s a combination of the two.
Look at what the data is saying. The plot from CIRP is saying that the XR has 5x the sales of the XS even though the XS was on sale for the whole 3 months of the quarter while the XR only had 2 months of sales. That doesn’t sound right. I’d be surprised if Apple was able to fill the retail channel for the XR before Thanksgiving, so the XR really only have 6 weeks of real sales, half the quarter.
CIRP looks like it is doing pseudo-random cold call surveys of US purchase data if the data is based on 500 points of data. They are going to have scaling function to account for the channel fill (based on channel checks, supply chain, whatever), and are hoping that purchasers of the XS and XR get their phones from the same places.