While the entry-level iPhone 13 was the best-selling model in the 2021 lineup, that changed the following year, with a new market intelligence report indicating that the iPhone 14 Pro Max was the best-selling model.
It suggests this was true not just for the launch period – when you’d expect early buyers to trend toward the flagship model – but remained the case throughout the first half of this year …
For many years, it was the base model iPhone that was the best-selling model each year. For most non-techy buyers, the important thing was to have a new iPhone, rather than the specific model.
But Omdia’s Smartphone Model Market Tracker says that this changed with the iPhone 14 lineup, as CNBC reports.
In the January-to-June period, Apple’s iPhone 14 Pro Max shipped 26.5 million units — the most out of any model from any manufacturer — compared with 21 million unit shipments for the iPhone 14 Pro.
Apple accounted for all four of the top-shipping models, with the iPhone 14 coming in third on 16.5 million units, and the iPhone 13 selling 15.5 million units.
It’s a trend that has also been seen with Android brands, with consumers increasingly favoring premium models, despite rising inflation and job losses.
The company says this strong demand for flagship models is likely to be even stronger as the iPhone 15 lineup launches.
[Demand for] Pro and Pro Max models is expected to continue to increase “due to solid demand for premium models,” said Jusy Hong, senior research manager at Omdia.
This echoes Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who yesterday said Apple is expecting the iPhone 15 Pro Max to be the best-selling model in this year’s lineup.
In a new report, the analyst claims that the iPhone 15 Pro Max will account for 35% to 40% of shipments in the iPhone 15 series, which means that Apple is clearly focusing on the more expensive model this year. Estimated shipments for the iPhone 15 Pro Max by the end of the year have also grown by around 10% compared to the iPhone 14 Pro Max in the same period.
“It means Apple is optimistic about the selling point of the periscope, which is only available in iPhone 15 Pro Max,” Kuo said in the report.
9to5Mac’s Take
There is certainly plenty of evidence that the two iPhone 14 Pro models were by far the most popular, and it wouldn’t be too great a stretch to see the Pro Max as the top-selling model.
While many used to buy a new phone every one to two years, the norm now is to upgrade every three to four years. That means that consumers potentially have more budget to play with, and may also figure that they want the best model so that it will feel up-to-date for as long as possible.
The Pro Max is expected to be the only model with the periscope lens, which is likely to be seen as the most appealing feature in this year’s iPhones, given pent-up demand for significantly longer optical zoom.
Photo: Zana Latif/Unsplash
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