Recently a Counterpoint study has been published in which the sales figures of the iPhone are analyzed during the first quarter of 2021, leaving interesting data compared to the iPhone 11 in the same period of 2020. Looking at the results it is seen that the Apple‘s new smartphones have a better adoption rate, which is a fact with certain nuances that are worth analyzing as we will do in this article. The price of the iPhone is one of the most important, but also its news or the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
What do the study numbers say about iPhone sales?
At the bottom of this post you can find a link to the data source to take a closer look at its figures. Although roughly what is shown is that in the first three months of 2021 there was an increase of 1% in sales of the iPhone 12 with respect to the figures obtained by the iPhone 11 in the same period of 2020. All this is in considering only Apple phones.
The iPhone 12, in any of its ranges, managed to obtain a 16% market share compared to the iPhone 11 that is still on sale, as are the iPhone XR and iPhone SE. It must be taken into account that Apple has not offered official data on unit sales of its smartphones for three years now, so it is certainly difficult to estimate the margins of errors in this type of study.
Going into more detail, the study also shows a certain preference of the public for the iPhone 12 Pro Max over the iPhone 12 Pro, unlike last year when the iPhone 11 Pro was above the ‘Max’ model. Unfortunately they do not offer specific data on the ‘mini’ model, of which a low demand is estimated compared to the forecasts that Apple had. It must also be said that it would be incomparable with other years, since it is the first time that Apple launches an iPhone ‘mini’ and therefore the comparison is iPhone 11 vs iPhone 12 + 12 mini.
Determining factors for sales growth
The price factor could not have been decisive on this occasion when evaluating the sales figures. Although the iPhone 12 rose 100 euros / dollars compared to its predecessor, the truth is that the iPhone 12 mini covered that price gap that the 2019 model had. And if we look at the ‘Pro’ range, they have not changed its price (1,159 and 1,259). Although we do find price reductions in the iPhone XR and an iPhone SE at a demolition price, which despite everything have not tarnished the initial footprint of these phones.
What is strange is what is related to the pandemic , since the crisis did not begin worldwide until March 2020 and by then the quarter was ending, while in 2021 we already had it with us, despite the fact that in many territories was beginning economic recovery. What could be a compelling reason is the launch date , since the iPhone 11 had been on the market since September 2019 and those of the last generation were launched 1 and 2 months late depending on the model, so the Figures that have been obtained in January, February and March would respond more to what happened with the iPhone 11 in the months of November and December 2020.
It is also possible that the comparison of iPhone 11 and 12 at the level of specifications has managed to be decisive in many cases. It must be borne in mind that at a general level there are not great changes between one generation and another, but aspects such as the OLED screen in the standard models or the camera improvements in the ‘Pro’ models may have been decisive in many cases.
