In a report released on Thursday, Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP) shared data which shows that early returns for the iPhone XS and XS Max have been generally positive, with each accounting for 8% of US iPhone sales, respectively, for the quarter. Meanwhile, the iPhone X captured 14% of the US market share, while the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus reigned supreme with 16% and 17% of sales, respectively.
Keep in mind that the iPhone XS models managed to grab nearly 20% of the market after having only been available for ten days of the entire quarter. In less than two weeks, the XS and XS Max managed to make a significant dent in the US iPhone market share, despite their recency and their record-setting prices.
“The iPhone launch quarter is always tricky to understand, and this one is trickier than others” said Josh Lowitz, CIRP Partner and Co Founder. “This year, Apple launched iPhone XS and XS Max, the two most-expensive models, at the end of the quarter. Last year, Apple launched the more-expensive iPhone X in the following quarter. So, during the quarter ending September 29, 2018, Apple had an unprecedented ten models to track. The iPhone XS and XS Max performed similarly to the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus did in their similar launch quarter last year.”
So while the XS and XS Max appear to be on pace with the performance of the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus from 2017, the elevated prices mean that the US Weighted Average Retail Price (US-WARP) is significantly higher than it was in the same quarter last year. CIRP uses US-WARP to estimate Average Selling Price (ASP), and the jump from $705 last September to $796 in September 2018 would suggest that the iPhone’s ASP is going to rise once again.
CIRP’s findings are based on a survey of 500 US Apple customers that bought an iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Apple Watch in the July-September quarter of 2018. Not a massive sample size, but interesting nonetheless.
