The iPhone Sales Data that Apple Doesn’t Disclose
CIRP has analyzed Apple’s US iPhone sales by model and storage capacity since 2012. We are pleased to share that data for the fourth fiscal quarter ending in September 2022. We actually established CIRP in part to answer these model mix questions. After a few years of selling a single iPhone model - and only on the AT&T network in those days - Apple started selling one- and then one- and two-year old models alongside the new flagship each year. That lineup has ballooned to as many as nine simultaneous model offerings. Apple followers in the investment community and related industries wanted to know the iPhone sales mix and Apple has never disclosed that data.
This report is based on a survey fielded in late September and early October, immediately after the end of Apple’s fourth fiscal quarter. It covers consumer purchases in that quarter which included the first three weeks of sales for the new iPhone 14 models, including iPhone 14, 14 Pro, and 14 Pro Max. Along with these new models, Apple also announced the first Plus model in recent years, iPhone 14 Plus, but sales of that model did not commence until early October 2022, one week into the next fiscal period.
The three available iPhone 14 models together accounted for 21% of total US sales (Table 1). This is higher than the 16% of sales for the four iPhone 13 models launched in September 2021, which included iPhone 13 mini. Variations in Apple’s launch calendar challenge these comparisons somewhat, since the iPhone 13 models were only available for two days during the fiscal period ending in September 2021.
Table 1: iPhone Purchase by Model by Quarter
Among individual models, the 2021 vintage iPhone 13 Pro Max had the largest share of any single model, at 21%. Of course, it and the iPhone 13 Pro were available for virtually the entire quarter, until the release of the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max. All four iPhone 13 models together accounted for 56% of sales in the September 2022 quarter, with the iPhone 13 and 13 mini available for the entire quarter. Older models, including iPhone 11, 12, 12 mini, and SE, combined for 21% of sales in the quarter.
Continued disappointing results for the iPhone mini form factor explain its retirement for the iPhone 14 model year. The iPhone 12 mini and 13 mini combined for 5% of iPhone sales, while the aggressively priced iPhone SE, with its aged styling, accounted for 7% of new iPhones sold in the quarter in the US. Of course, model selection is only part of the story. New iPhone buyers also select from a range of storage capacities, which can drive up prices. In future reports we will dig deeper into the storage capacity question, which is affected by a number of factors:
increased speed in the cellular networks which made streaming more prevalent and reduced the need for on-device audio and video storage
more robust cameras which made photo libraries more compelling and more storage intensive
changes in pricing, payment plans, and the length of time that customers anticipate keeping their phone.
For now, the headline is, consumers continued their long-standing tendency to upgrade from base storage. For the new iPhone 14 models and the more expensive iPhone 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max, a majority of customers paid a premium for larger storage capacity phones.
We have been studying Apple for a decade and are excited to share our data and insights on Substack. Please reach out to us if you have ideas for topics we should cover in future reports, or want to talk about a proprietary query of our extensive database or even custom research on a related (or not so related) topic.
A few months ago we initiated a similar series of reports about Amazon, also at Substack, and we encourage you to check that out too!