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Jeff Pu of Hong Kong-based investment firm Haitong International Securities affirms the earlier report of Counterpoint Research about weak iPhone 15 initial demand. However, instead of focusing on the Chinese market, the analyst’s report reflects the global demand for the new series. According to his notes to investors, iPhone 15 demand is comparatively lower than what the iPhone 14 experienced last year during the same period.
According to the report, this demand is particularly affecting the standard models of the series: the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus. The analyst has underscored how easy and immediate it is to acquire the models globally in stores compared to their Pro counterparts, the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max. As per Pu, Pro and Pro Max are the two popular models in the lineup, which is somehow expected.
During the first few weeks after Apple started accepting iPhone 15 pre-orders, the Pro models experienced the highest wait times. Counterpoint explained in its report that these high wait times could be a reflection of the Pro models’ charm, thanks to the hardware upgrades they offer.
“I don’t think it’s a big surprise the Pro Max is showing longer wait times than its predecessor,” Senior Analyst, Manufacturing, Ivan Lam said. “It’s normal to experience hiccups when you’ve got significant upgrades on complex mechanisms like the camera module. But looking at wait times this weekend as the product starts selling in stores, it looks like availability is moving in the right direction and normalizing.”
“The introduction of premium features like Dynamic Island previously exclusive to the Pro lineup has really increased its appeal to the general consumer base,” Jeff Fieldhack, Counterpoint Research Director for North America, commented on the base iPhone 15 long wait times. “It’s basically an iPhone 14 Pro at base level price and paired with the new aesthetic updates has created more incentives for users to upgrade this year.”
Despite this seemingly high demand for Pro models, reports about a general lower demand for the iPhone 15 series could spell trouble for Apple. If this is true, even if it is just limited to China, a drop in demand percentage could mean a loss of millions of iPhone sales for Apple. This could be the case in the Chinese market since it is one of the biggest iPhone markets for Apple. According to Counterpoint, it saw a 4.5% drop in the iPhone 15 demand compared to the iPhone 14 series during its first 17 days in the market. Sadly, given the size of the Chinese market, this “small” number translates to 12 million iPhone units.
