Consumer Intelligence Research Partners, also known as CIRP, shared a new market research report this week with data on iPhone sales between late September and early October 2022. The data, which covers the first three weeks of iPhone 14 sales, shows that more customers have been opting for iPhone models with higher storage capacity in the US.
The report is based on a field survey conducted in the US after the end of Apple’s fiscal fourth quarter. In this period, iPhone 14 models accounted for 21% of iPhone sales. The iPhone 14 Plus wasn’t included in the survey because it was launched at a later date. CIRP notes that in the same period last year, iPhone 13 models accounted for 16% of total US sales.
Even with the launch of the iPhone 14, the 13 models are still selling well – at least most of them. For example, just the regular iPhone 13 alone accounted for 15% of sales. Unsurprisingly, iPhone 13 mini is the least popular of the lineup, with only 4% of sales. iPhone 12 mini performed even worse with only 1% of sales. (The phone has now been discontinued.)
The three-year-old iPhone 11, which is still in Apple’s lineup, accounted for an impressive 9% in the latest survey, which shows that there’s still a significant amount of customers interested in buying older iPhone models for lower prices. This makes iPhone 11 even more popular than the entry-level iPhone SE, which accounts for 7% of sales.
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.
Customers want iPhones with more storage
But more than just showing which iPhone models were the bestsellers, CIRP also asked buyers what storage capacity they chose. This time, the research company noted that more people have been choosing models with larger capacity.
For example, 60% of iPhone 13 Pro buyers opted for the 128GB model in 2021. This year, 50% of consumers chose the version with 256GB of internal storage. CIRP says that, for iPhone 14 models, “a majority of customers paid a premium for larger storage capacity phones.”
The research attributes the higher demand for higher-capacity iPhone models to camera upgrades, which result in larger image and video files. For instance, a single 48MP ProRAW photo taken with iPhone 14 Pro can result in a 75MB file. It’s worth noting that iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max are available in configurations with up to 1TB of storage.
What are your thoughts about the research? Let us know in the comments section below. Be sure to check the full research on CIRP’s website.
Author: Filipe Espósito
Source: 9TO5Google
