The Average iPhone Sold in the US is Very Expensive

Last week we released CIRP analysis of iPhone model sales in the September 2024 quarter. Now we look at one of the best metrics we have to understand iPhone sales, US-WARP - the weighted average retail price of new iPhones sold in the quarter. The iPhone US-WARP this quarter is the highest we have measured.

The September quarter is a confusing one for iPhone analysis. For about ten weeks, new iPhone buyers consist mostly of those that either don’t quite care about anticipated new model announcements and reduced prices for existing models or those that have an urgent need to replace a missing or malfunctioning smartphone. Then in the final two weeks of the quarter, the most loyal, eager new phone buyers rush into the market. So there are many factors that can drive September quarter US-WARP up or down.

Apple stopped releasing Average Selling Price (ASP) for iPhones in 2018. Fortunately, CIRP had calculated the Weighted Average Retail Price of iPhones sold in the US (US-WARP) for more than five years at that time. The numbers move similarly, though ASP was a global number and US-WARP does not take into account wholesale discounts that Apple may offer to different retailers.

In the September 2024 quarter, US-WARP was $1,018, up from $971 in the June 2024 quarter and also from $918 in the September 2023 quarter (Chart 1). The September 2024 US-WARP was the highest that CIRP had ever estimated.