The iPhone 16 is not selling as well as Apple hoped
Sales drops of 27% and 16% respectively for the iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max
In his blog, Ming-Chi Kuo states: as a whole, the iPhone 16 range sold 37 million copies during the first weekend of pre-orders, which corresponds to a drop of 13% compared to last year over the same period. Analyst Dan Ives, for his part, commented on the roughly similar figure of 40 million units sold over the period, which remains a significant drop.
The main problem lies above all in the distribution of sales: it seems that the iPhone 16 Pro is selling much less than last year. Indeed, if we base ourselves on Ming-Chi Kuo's figures, Apple sold 9.8 million iPhone 16 Pros during the first weekend of pre-orders, which corresponds to a drop of 27% compared to to 2023. The same goes for the iPhone 16 Pro Max: the latter sold 17.1 million copies over the period, or 16% less than the iPhone 15 Pro Max.
Obviously, these poor figures can be explained in several ways: first, the iPhone 16s are available without their flagship feature, Apple Intelligence, which should arrive by 2025 here in particular. On the other hand, apart from Apple Intelligence, there is no major change between the iPhone 15 range and the iPhone 16 range. At least, nothing that would justify the transition from one generation to another.
It now remains to be determined whether these figures are confirmed: as a reminder, they only concern the very first weekend of pre-sales, so it is possible that the arrival of smartphones in stores on September 20 may have enabled a boost in sales. We should learn more in a few weeks.
