Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max 5G, iPhone 11 each had leading 23% share of iOS handset sales last quarter

Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max and iPhone 11each had a leading 23% of iPhone revenue during the fiscal third quarter of 2021

Josh Lowitz, CIRP Partner and Co-Founder said, “Apple did very well as it emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic. Increased consumer spending correlated with consumers shifting to more expensive iPhone models as they retired older phones and shopped more at Apple’s own retail locations to buy those iPhones. As a consequence, we estimate that US-WARP (Weighted Average Retail Price), the analogue to Average Selling Price that Apple no longer discloses, rose in the quarter.”

Consumers aren’t waiting as long as they have in the past to trade in their current phone

Mike Levin, CIRP Partner and Co-Founder, weighed in with his findings. He says, “For the first time in many quarters, consumers traded in somewhat newer phones. We ask consumers about the age of their previous phone, and in the quarter, we saw the share of phones that were three years old or greater decrease. In the quarter, it looks like iPhone buyers traded in fewer older phones and opted for more expensive iPhone models as they upgraded.”

We should point out, although you probably know this by now, that the iPhone 12 line is the first from Apple to support 5G connectivity. Interestingly, the two top selling iPhone models in the quarter, both with 23% of sales, were the iPhone 12 Pro Max and the iPhone 11. The weakest selling models, both with a 5% share of iOS handsets rung up during the period, were the iPhone 12 mini (no surprise there) and the iPhone XR.

Perhaps the most interesting data coming from the survey showed that the phones being traded in by consumers had declined sharply for the first time in four years. Slightly less than 30% of those surveyed said that they had traded in a phone that was three years old or more compared to the approximately 35% who said that they did so during the previous quarter. During the fiscal third quarter of last year, roughly 33% said that they traded in a phone that was three years old or more.