Released near the end of this year's third calendar quarter, the iPhone 16, 16 Plus, 16 Pro, and 16 Pro Max reportedly had plenty of time to account for a combined 20 percent share of Apple's total handset sales in the US for said July–September period.
But if you think that's a great result for such a young (and familiar-looking) high-end smartphone quartet, wait until you hear how the iPhone 15 lineup performed during its first couple of weeks of US availability back in the fall of 2023.
No AI, no buy
Although we obviously can't know for sure exactly why Americans didn't flock to Apple Stores as they usually do to get their hands on the latest and greatest iPhones last month, it's probably safe to assume that the belated Apple Intelligence rollout and general lack of innovation caused at least some of the harm here.
The "vanilla" iPhone 16 performed especially poorly stateside, tying the iPhone 16 Plus for just 4 percent of Q3 2024 sales after the base iPhone 15 model towered above its siblings in the same timeframe of last year with a juicy 10 percent slice of the regional pie.
The big picture may not have changed much between Q3 2023 and Q3 2024, but the details are very different.
Back then, the iPhone 15 Plus only stood at 3 percent, which means that the 16 Plus has actually managed to improve on its predecessor's popularity, making it likely that we'll see an iPhone 17 Plus released next year after all.
Along with the 16 Plus, the 6.3-inch iPhone 16 Pro seems to have done pretty well at the US box-office too, matching the 6 percent share of last year's iPhone 15 Pro. Meanwhile, the iPhone 16 Pro Max is proving considerably less popular than the hugely successful 15 Pro Max, dropping from 9 to 6 percent, which is bound to hurt Apple's profits the most.
That being said, it is interesting to note that Pro-grade iPhones are extending their popularity advantage over their non-Pro siblings, which must come as good news for the Cupertino-based tech giant as a state-of-the-art Slim version is expected to be added to the iPhone 17 family in 2025.
That's some incredible resilience for the iPhone 15 series!
There are no prizes for guessing where most of Apple's "lost" iPhone 16 series sales went between July and September 2024, as the iPhone 15 roster massively improved on the iPhone 14 family's figures from the same period of 2023.
We're talking a huge jump from 13 to 22 percent for the Pro Max variant, solid boosts for the Plus and "normal" Pro models, and a relatively large drop from the base iPhone 14 to the iPhone 15 that didn't harm the total much.
The iPhone 15 Pro Max will be very hard to beat even in the next few quarters. | Image Credit -- PhoneArena
The iPhone 15 Pro Max was by far Apple's most popular handset in the US this Q3, which may or may not be the case for the 16 Pro Max this time next year. Interestingly, the iPhone 14 currently sits in third place, narrowly beaten by the 15 Pro while edging out the non-Pro iPhone 15 despite also proving slightly less popular than the iPhone 13 this time last year.
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Another intriguing number is that unchanged 4 percent share next to the iPhone SE name, which may not sound like much but is actually one of the most remarkable stats here if you consider the super-advanced age of this budget-friendly mid-ranger.
The third-gen iPhone SE is impressively still a lot more successful than the technically superior (and slightly younger) iPhone 14 Plus, which makes us that much more eager to finally welcome an upgraded fourth edition at some point in the next six months or so.
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Adrian, a mobile technology enthusiast since the Nokia 3310 era, has been a dynamic presence in the tech journalism field, contributing to Android Authority, Digital Trends, and Pocketnow before joining PhoneArena in 2018. His expertise spans across various platforms, with a particular fondness for the diversity of the Android ecosystem. Despite the challenges of balancing full-time parenthood with his work, Adrian's passion for tech trends, running, and movies keeps him energized. His commitment to mid-range smartphones has led to an eclectic collection of devices, saved from personal bankruptcy by his preference for 'adequate' over 'overpriced'.
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