According to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, pre-orders for the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max have been "lower than expected." This information is based on a supply-chain survey, as well as the shipping estimates listed on Apple's online store after the devices became available for pre-order in the US and other regions on Friday.
Reportedly, sales of all four models in the recently launched iPhone 16 series reached 37 million units during the first weekend after pre-orders opened. This number represents a decline of about 12.7% compared to the first weekend sales of last year's iPhone 15 models.
More specifically, talking about specific models, the iPhone 16 Pro Max pre-orders were down by 16% compared to the iPhone 15 Pro Max, while pre-orders of iPhone 16 Pro were down by 27% compared to the iPhone 15 Pro.
This suggests that the popularity of this year's iPhone 16 Pro models hasn't been much among iPhone buyers, even though the phone packs a new ultrawide camera, dedicated camera shutter button, thinner bezels, better charging speeds, improved video shooting capabilities, better 5G speeds, and more.
On the other hand, the standard iPhone 16 models: the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus have seen a higher demand than the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus, respectively, during the first weekend of sales. Notably, the iPhone 16 registered 10% more sales compared to last year's iPhone 15, and the iPhone 16 Plus registered 48% more sales than the iPhone 15 Plus from last year during the same period.
As noted by Kuo, the demand for the standard models was, however, not sufficient enough to offset the lower demand for the iPhone 16 Pro models. It is speculated that the absence of Apple Intelligence out of the box on the iPhone 16 series when they launch on Friday, has been one of the key reasons for people showing more interest in the standard iPhone 16 models than the Pro variants.
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