New data shows high prices keep impacting sales

Aug 7, 2019 08:55 GMT  ·  By

iPhone sales experienced a decline in the second quarter of 2019, according to statistics provided by IHS Markit, and analysts expect shipments to continue the drop, especially due to high prices.

Last quarter, Apple sold a total of 35.3 million iPhones, which is down 15 percent year-over-year and 19 percent quarter-over-quarter. In Q1 2019, Apple sold 43.8 million units, while in the second quarter of 2018, shipments reached 41.3 million units.

The leading company continues to be none other than Samsung, whose sales reached 75.1 million units in Q2 2019. This is an increase of 6 percent from the same quarter a year ago and of 6 percent from the previous quarter.

Despite the challenges raised by the United States government ban, Huawei remains the runner-up with 58.7 million units sold in the second quarter of this year. This represents a 1 percent drop from the previous quarter, but on the other hand, it’s an 8 percent increase from the 54.2 million phones that it sold in the second quarter of 2018.

New iPhones coming in September

One of the main factors for Apple’s drop is the high price of its devices, according to IHS Markit.

“Apple continues to face challenges in terms of unit shipments—a trend that is unlikely to be fixed soon. Apple shipped 35.3 million iPhones in the second quarter, down 14.6 percent from 41.3 million units one year ago,” the company explains as per 9to5mac.

“Apple continues to be more aggressive with its promotional activities, but still faces two key challenges: super-premium pricing for its latest models and insufficient price elasticity in its older models to drive significant additional shipments of two-to-three-year-old devices.”

Apple will take the wraps off a trio of iPhones next month, with sales of the iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, and iPhone XR successors to begin by the end of September.