During last week's quarterly results press call, Apple acknowledged that "the smartphone market has been in a decline for the last couple of quarters in the United States," culminating in a Q2 iPhone sales slump that sent its stock down. Apple notched a rare miss of Wall Street's estimates, moving $39.7 billion worth of iPhones, and thanks to its booming sales in China, rather than the tepid US market.
That revenue, however, could've been even lower if Apple hadn't started a clever marketing differentiation between its iPhone 14 Pro and regular iPhone lines. It managed to bump the average selling price of its iPhones to the record $988 as it deprecated the mini line and introduced the pricier Plus model. Apple also created such a specs and features gap between the Pro line and the cheaper iPhones, that it basically corralled upgraders towards its more expensive handsets.
So much so, that the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max sales dominated the charts at the expense of the iPhone 14 and, especially, the iPhone 14 Plus that only few seem attracted to. As a result, the share of the iPhone 14 Pro models in the product mix has hit 60%, according to Statista, a complete U-turn compared to prior iPhone editions where the cheaper iPhones were the most sought after on the market.
According to market research firm Omdia cited by The Elec, the share of the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max models will be 65% of the iPhone 15 lineup mix from the get-go. While it took Apple a while to ramp up the Pro line production last year and reverse buyer's interest from the cheaper to the more expensive iPhones, this year it will manage to do so right after launch, claim the analysts.
They expect the iPhone Pro Max to sell the most - 28.5 million units - riding high on its periscope camera zoom for the first time on an iPhone, the expected thinner bezels and titanium frame, as well as the fast new Apple A17 chipset. Next in line is the iPhone 15 Pro with 20.5 million units of predicted sales this year.
That leaves the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus, which are rumored to ship with older chipset and slow display refresh rate, to battle for the 26 million units left to a 75 million total of new 2023 iPhone series that Apple is forecast to move by the end of the year.
While 75 million of the new generation iPhones sold is still lower than the 83.5 million Apple managed to ship in the year the iPhone 13 made a cameo, the unprecedented 65% market share of the iPhone 15 Pro line will probably make up for it in terms of revenue and profits. More so since Apple is expected to increase the prices of the iPhone Pros this year to account for their new specs, features, and design like the first periscope camera and USB-C port on an iPhone.
Daniel, a devoted tech writer at PhoneArena since 2010, has been engrossed in mobile technology since the Windows Mobile era. His expertise spans mobile hardware, software, and carrier networks, and he's keenly interested in the future of digital health, car connectivity, and 5G. Beyond his professional pursuits, Daniel finds balance in travel, reading, and exploring new tech innovations, while contemplating the ethical and privacy implications of our digital future.
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