Overall iPhone sales down 20% YOY in November; iPhone XR became the bestselling model – Counterpoint

“iPhone XR became the best-selling iPhone model in November 2018,” Shobhit Srivastava writes for Counterpoint. “The overall sales of new iPhones took a hit in November due to slower sales of the series in the Asia Pacific region (excluding China and India), Europe and US. The decline in the US and Europe is due to the lengthening replacement cycle and decreased operator discounts this year during the launch of new iPhones. While the decline in emerging markets like the Asia Pacific (excluding China and India) is due to the higher price when compared to offerings from Chinese players.”
“Sale[s] of new iPhones (XR/XS/XS MAX) launched in November were down over 20% YoY compared to last year’s launches (8/8 Plus/X),” Srivastava writes. “The iPhone XR series outsold XS and XS Max series, iPhone XR 64 GB became the best-selling iPhone during the month.”
“We estimate iPhone XR to further eat into the share of higher-priced iPhone XS and XS Max during December 2018,” Srivastava writes.
Source: Counterpoint
 
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MacDailyNews Take: Again, units don’t matter. There are only so many quality users on the planet. Keeping them happy, as every measure of customer satisfaction shows Apple has amazingly well done to date, is what matters. As long as the users buy apps on the App Store, subscribe to Apple Music, add iCloud storage, use Apple Pay, etc., they can replace their hardware with Apple hardware at their own pace.
Yes, the iPhone replacement cycle is lengthening, but with so many iPhone (and iPad) users and with customer satisfaction so high, it really doesn’t matter. The market is mature and there are only so many quality users on the planet. Apple has that market cornered. The types of people who’ve settled for Android aren’t likely to buy as many apps or subscribe to services. They want free. They’re not worth much after the sale. The iPhone knockoff peddlers like Samsung can have them.
This is, of course, Apple’s point with ceasing the reporting of unit sales. It’s the user base, the quality of the user base, and services that matter more now. That’s where the growth is and where it will be for many, many years to come. — MacDailyNews, January 5, 2019