AppleInsider Staff
Apple CEO Tim Cook on Monday revealed about 20 percent of active iPhone users have upgraded to the company's latest iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus hardware, leaving room for growth.
Cook's statement, which came in response to an analyst question during Apple's quarterly conference call for the second quarter of 2015, suggests iPhone has substantial room for growth in the months leading up to an expected next-generation handset launch this fall.
For its second fiscal quarter, Apple sold a whopping 61 million iPhones leading to a record $13.6 billion in profits for the three month period. The number is huge considering negative seasonality headwinds, possibly bolstered by first-time buyers in developing regions. For emerging markets, iPhone sales were up 63% year-over-year.
Earlier in the call, Cook noted iPhone was seeing a higher rate of switchers than previous quarters, hinting that iOS is stealing marketshare from Google's Android operating system. Combined with potential upgraders, iPhone appears primed for further growth across quarter three and beyond.
Andrew Orr
Amber Neely
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
47 Comments
Apple CEO Tim Cook on Monday revealed about 20 percent of active iPhone users have upgraded to the company's latest iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus hardware, leaving room for growth.
Wow. That is shockingly low. I am really surprised that there are not more upgrades to the 6 at this point. I would have expected at least 40% ... what was the iPhone 5 percentage at the same time?
Cook didn't answer when he was asked what the situation was last year. It does seem low, even more so when he said low teens at the last call had updated. So just 5-7 % increase? It's clearly good news because it means many if not most buyers of the iPhone 6 are switchers or first time users of iPhones.
Anecdotally, I noticed 4 different people today still using "old" iPhones. Each time I thought, "this guy/girl strikes me a a person who would love a 6 and could afford an upgrade. It's just a mater of time..." I believe this easily. Apple is no where near saturation with 6s. And with emerging markets, well, emerging--Apple is beating the cycle!!
A cheap large screen next year will sell like gang busters. A quick back of the envelop calculation gives me about 30M switchers or new users across 2Q.
I'm not in a contract and I'm waiting to see what will come with the next iPhone cycle (6S, 6S Plus) because everything is functioning fine. The longer you can wait, the more compelling the upgrade becomes. Wife is still using an iPhone 4 running iOS 7.x and I'm actually using an iPad Mini 2 (I don't take or make many calls and just use VoIP). The lack of compatibility with Apple Watch for iPad is disappointing. Why can't a cellular capable iPad be used? Seems like that would be a decent combination (iPad Mini Cellular + Apple Watch).