In an interview with CNET, Apple’s VP of product marketing Greg Joswiak said that the iPhone XR “been our most popular iPhone each and every day since the day it became available.” This counters an analyst report from earlier this week that said the iPhone XR was performing worse than Apple expected.
This also downplays analyst concerns about reports of shipment orders for all three new iPhones have been slashed. The statement to CNET is the first time an Apple spokesperson revealed how well the latest iPhone flagships are doing.
For the quarter ended September 29th, Apple did not sell as many iPhones that Wall Street was expecting. That quarter did not include the unit sales for the latest iPhones. And going forward, Apple is no longer going to report how many total units of iPhones it is selling every quarter.
Since Apple announced the quarterly earnings, its stock price dropped about 20%, which took away the company’s trillion dollar market capitalization. And this caused Apple and Microsoft to go back and forth over which company is the most valuable throughout late November. Another reason why Apple’s stock dropped is that President Donald Trump said that he would place tariffs on Apple’s iPhones and computers imported from China.
The iPhone XR is considered Apple’s “budget” device at a price of $749 compared to the iPhone XS Max ― which costs about $1,349 with 512GB storage. Apple announced the iPhone XR, iPhone XS, and iPhone XS Max in the middle of September. The iPhone XS has a starting price of $999 and the iPhone XS Max starts at $1,099. The iPhone XR started selling in late October.
Last year, there were similar reports about drops in shipments orders with the iPhone X. However, the costlier device ended up bringing in substantially more revenue for Apple. Selling fewer devices at a higher price while also offering a “budget” option will pay off big time.
With the iPhone XR, it was also the first time that Apple introduced a Product Red device at launch. Tomorrow for World AIDS Day, Joswiak said that Apple is going to donate $1 for every Apple Pay purchase at an Apple Store, Apple.com, or through the Apple Store app between December 1st and December 7th. And Apple is going to turn 125 Apple Store logos red.
For the sales of Apple’s red devices, the company donates a portion of the proceeds to Red — which is an HIV/AIDS nonprofit started by U2 lead vocalist Bono. Since Apple first started offering support to Red twelve years ago, the Cupertino giant raised more than $200 million from the sale of its Red products. “Not only does each purchase bring us closer to an AIDS-free generation but every dollar provides five days of life-saving medicine,” added Joswiak via CNET.
