An insider familiar with Apple’s supply chain said in a note to clients earlier this week that iPhone 11 preorders were off to a good start, just as we noted that most iPhone 11 Pro versions were sold out, as were several of the new iPhone 11 color options. It took Apple less than three days to run out of stock of some models, offering delivery estimates of up to three weeks for some of them. But Ming-Chi Kuo isn’t the only analyst who observed a significant sales improvement during the preorder period.
Kuo revised his iPhone 11 shipping estimates to between 70 million and 75 million units in 2019, up from his earlier 65 million to 70 million forecast.
As Reuters explains, several Wall Street analysts also said on Monday that iPhone 11 sales have gotten off to a better start than their predecessors.
Chinese e-commerce site JD.com revealed on Saturday that day one preorders jumped 480% compared to the same time last year, with the top three most popular versions being the Midnight Green iPhone 11 Pro, and the Black and Purple iPhone 11.
Alibaba’s Tmall platform registered iPhone 11 sales 335% higher on day one compared to iPhone XR presales last year, Chinese media outlet Yicai said.
“We are careful about extrapolating first weekend data, though it is fair to say it is ahead of last year’s launches,” Nomura-owned brokerage Instinet’s analysts said. “Should the early shipment time data hold and translate to unit volumes, Apple may be able to offset this year’s average selling price reduction.”
Wedbush’s Daniel Ives said he conducted checks with suppliers in Asia, including China and concluded, like Instinet, that initial orders were looking good.
The iPhone 11 series phones are available to preorder for a few more days, with prices starting at $699 (iPhone 11), $999 (iPhone 11 Pro), and $999 (iPhone 11 Pro Max), and will begin shipping on September 20th.
Apple no longer reports iPhone preorder performance, nor does it reveal any iPhone figures during its quarterly earnings reports.
