14 DAY TRIAL // Apple has no reason to be pleased with sales of the iPhone, not only because the iPhone X isn’t performing exactly as expected, but also because older models seem to beat newer ones in terms of shipments.
The company sold a total of 45 million devices in the first three months of the year, according to data shared by Susquehanna Financial Group analyst Mehdi Hossein, a decrease of 13 percent from the same period a year ago.
And while the drop itself is bad news given that the iPhone 7 has been criticized because of the subtle design improvements over the previous generations, what’s worse for Apple is that new models don’t seem to generate too much excitement.
The iPhone X struggle
The analyst says Apple sold only 8 million iPhone X units during the quarter, while the iPhone 8 series, including both the standard and the Plus model, accounted for 15 million sold units. The other 22 million units were previous-generation iPhone models like the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, and the iPhone SE.
The iPhone X was unveiled in September last year, but sales only started in early November due to inventory issues, as suppliers couldn’t meet the request production capacity because of the complex nature of some parts, such as the Face ID module.
Early sales of the device have thus been impacted by the constrained supply, but Apple further adjusted production for the first quarters of 2018 due to reduced demand. If these figures are accurate, then sales of the iPhone X continue to be lower than expected, and shipments are currently driven by previous-generation models, which customers believe deliver great value for the money.
The next-generation iPhone models are projected to see daylight in September when three models will be unveiled, including a successor to the iPhone X and a Plus-sized sibling.