For observers who wish to compare this season’s launch of the iPhone 15 models to previous ones, Apple continues to make life hard, according to a new report from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners.
CIRP says it switches models, delays launches, and otherwise creates difficulty in analyzing what’s going on. Apple launched its new iPhone 15 models in mid-September. These include the base iPhone 15 and larger iPhone 15 Plus, and premium iPhone 15 Pro and its larger partner, iPhone 15 Pro Max. To add to the confusion, in 2022 Apple released the iPhone 14 Plus in October, so it was not included in CIRP’s analysis of the September quarter.
The 2022 iPhone 14 Plus model essentially replaced the iPhone mini models from the iPhone 12 and 13 lineups, further confounding comparisons. Despite this, CIRP says it has early evidence about how the iPhone 15 models launched.
“It’s too soon to declare definitively which specific models have done well or poorly. Still, we see at least one trend continuing: demand for the top-of-the-line Pro models is most stable and may start trending downward,” the report says. “In the September 2023 quarter, the new iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max combined for a 15% share of total US iPhone sales, slightly below the 17% share for the then-new iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max models in September.’
