There’s no denying that cumulative iPhone sales were down during the recent holiday quarter, but that’s not to say that sales have completely plummeted. Far from it, Tim Cook explained in his letter to investors earlier this month that Apple’s revised guidance for the December quarter was 100% attributable to a revenue shortfall in China. Put differently, iPhone sales are seemingly doing quite well across the globe, save of course for China.
Consequently, the narrative that the iPhone XR has been nothing short of a colossal failure isn’t exactly on point. And sure, while Apple’s marketing with respect to the iPhone XR may leave a little to be desired, the cold hard data shows that Apple’s entry-level iPhone is actually performing as expected.
According to new research data from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP), the iPhone XR was the best-selling iPhone model in the U.S. during the recent holiday quarter. This data, of course, coroborrates previous statements from Apple executives who have said that the iPhone XR has been the top-selling iPhone model every single day since its release a few months back.
“With all three new iPhone models available for most of the quarter, we have a clearer picture of their relative sales,” CIRP co-founder Josh Lowitz said in a press release. “The three new models made up 65% of sales, compared to 61% for the iPhone 8, 8 Plus, and X a year ago.”
“The single iPhone XR model almost matched the combined iPhone 8 and 8 Plus in the same quarter last year,” Lowitz added. “iPhone XR also had the largest quarterly share for a single model, at 39%, in the past couple of years, since the then-new iPhone 7 in December 2016, even though it was available only for part of the quarter.”
One of the more interesting tidbits from CIRP’s data is that the iPhone XS Max outsold the regular iPhone XS by a factor of two to one. Presumably, the higher-margined iPhone XS Max will help Apple offset — perhaps to a small degree — some of the revenue shortfall from an overall drop in quarterly iPhone sales.
