Chinese consumers bought under a million iPhone 14 handsets during the three-day launch period, a sales drop of 11 per cent from the iPhone 13 a year prior.
A note from Jefferies Group pointed out that, with just 987,000 devices sold in the first three days of delivery, figures were well under initial forecasts.
“These initial data suggested iPhone 14’s sales may not be as strong as the pre-order levels indicated, since pre-order does not come with any payment obligations,” the note said.
Chinese smartphone shipments across the entire market fell by almost a third in July, to 19.1 million. So iPhone’s early slump in the region may not be as dire as suggested.
Globally, the iPhone Pro Max is the company’s most successful model to date, according to early data, despite it also being the most expensive.
In Australia, the Pro Max starts at A$1,899 and ranges to A$2,769 for the 1TB version.
Apple has also shored up its production for the phone, starting manufacturing in India just three weeks after launch – a timeline accelerated from the original two month timeline “after resolving supply chain issues, which helped production go smoother than expected”, according to an insider at Foxconn, Apple’s production partner.
