Meanwhile, Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook pointed out that sales of Apple products in the United States were declining.
Apple’s iPhone 15 will reportedly go on sale around September 22, according to a Bloomberg report release on Monday, August 7, 2023. The launch is expected to follow an Apple event to be held on either September 12 or 13 during which consumers will get a peak into the new device’s features.
During a post-earnings call last week, Apple reported that “the smartphone market has been in a decline for the last couple of quarters in the United States,” sending the company’s stock sliding. The company’s fiscal third-quarter (ended July 1) earnings show that iPhone sales declined 2% to $39.67 billion.
While iPhone sales are expected to improve this quarter, the company projects that revenue will remain in the same range as last quarter. In fact, Apple is headed for its fourth straight quarterly sales decrease, an event that has not occurred since 2001. This could be a challenge for the tech giant considering that the iPhone 15 is set to be the biggest update to the phone range in three years.
Previous major upgrades such as the iPhone 6 in 2014, iPhone X in 2017 and iPhone 12 in 2020 could depend on new features such as larger screens, 5G support and new designs, to sell the product. The iPhone 15 is expected to feature borders that are one-third thinner than the last model, a lighter titanium frame to replace the current stainless steel, better camera quality, a USB-C charging port, and a faster processor.
For this upgrade, the company might have to look beyond the promise of new features to make sales. Apple, which rarely experiences sales declines, has faced major setbacks over the past years. These include a slowdown in sales in the Chinese market in early 2019, a launch delay due to the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and supply chain issues at Foxconn plants in China last year which negatively impacted holiday sales.
Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook pointed out that sales of Apple products in the United States were declining. The company noted an increase of 7.9% to $15.7 billion in revenue in the Chinese market – including the Hong Kong and Taiwan regions.
The device that is going on sale on September 22 will give the company about a week of iPhone 15 sales in the fourth quarter. It will be interesting to see how sales perform during the holiday quarter – October to December – which is Apple’s busiest time of the year. Barring any production or supply chain issues this year, the iPhone 15 has the potential to outperform the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max, making for better year-on-year figures.
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