U.S. consumers are returning to the pre-pandemic days to buy their new iPhones

During the second quarter of 2023, which ended in June, smartphone sales moved back to the retail stores owned by wireless providers. During the pandemic, consumers moved away from the tried and true tradition of buying new handsets from the closest retail location that belongs to their wireless firms. There, consumers could buy their new phones after checking it out with other models, and have it set up correctly by the store rep who would also show customers how to work some of the features of their new devices.

During the pandemic and afterward, more phone purchases were being made online but this trend started to reverse itself during the second quarter. According to CIRP (Consumer Intelligence Research Partners), "Improved onboarding and service transfer technology, as well as the Covid pandemic, pushed more sales online, and the mobile carriers' physical stores became less important. Online sales are still up, but we are witnessing a return to those tried-and-true stores."

During the three-month period that ended in June, 79% of U.S. iPhone sales were purchased from mobile carriers; 52% of those transactions took place inside a carrier's retail store and 27% were made on a wireless provider's website. U.S. Physical Apple Store purchases of iPhone units during Q2 made up 11% of state-side iPhone sales during the period while 6% of iPhone sales came from Apple's own online store.

Overall, during the second quarter 65% of U.S. iPhone sales were rung up in a retail store (including the 2% that took place in Best Buy stores) while 35% occurred online. The percentage of U.S. iPhone sales made online soared to 50% in June 2020 just as the pandemic was heating up. But as you can see from the latest numbers, this trend has reversed giving the mobile carriers an edge, according to CIRP. "As customers return to in-store shopping, the thousands of mobile carrier stores have an edge over the hundreds of Apple stores," the research organization said.

In addition, you are apt to find better deals for a new iPhone from your wireless provider than from Apple. This is quite timely information now that Apple officially announced that it will introduce the 2023 iPhone 15 line on September 12th starting at 1 pm EDT. You'll be able to live stream the video from Apple's own website, Apple.com.

The iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus will be powered by the 4nm A16 Bionic chipset which currently drives the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max. The iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus will also both get the Dynamic Island and 48MP stacked imaging sensors for the main camera, a technology that won't appear on the Pro models until the iPhone 16 Pro series is released in 2024. The Lightning port on the bottom of the phone will be replaced by a USB-C port. You can expect a hike in battery capacity and iOS 17 will be pre-installed.

The iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max (or Ultra) will be the first and only smartphones this year to be powered by a 3nm SoC, the A17 Bionic. This should help deliver greater performance and energy efficiency. The chassis of both iPhone 15 Pro models will be made of titanium making it lighter and more durable than stainless steel. The iPhone 15 Pro models will also swap the proprietary Lightning port for USB-C.

The iPhone 15 Pro Max/Ultra will be the first and only iPhone model to be equipped with a periscope lens which bends inside the phone and uses prisms to carry the light from the lens to the image sensor. By extending the focal length of the lens within the small confines of a smartphone body, the periscope lens on the iPhone 15 Pro Max/Ultra will allow an increase in optical zoom from 3x on the iPhone 14 Pro Max to 6x and perhaps more on the 2023 model. Next year, the iPhone 16 Pro is rumored to also get a periscope lens.

The iPhone 15 Pro models will be pre-installed with iOS 17 and both phones should also see a nice increase in the capacity of their respective batteries. Lastly, we could see starting prices stay flat for the non-Pro models ($799 for iPhone 15 and $899 for iPhone 15 Plus) and get a $100 to $200 hike for the Pro variants ($1,099 for the iPhone 15 Pro and $1,299 for the iPhone 15 Pro Max/Ultra.