Which iPhone colors are the most popular in 2023

Since its inception, the iPhone has primarily been available in black and white, but the iPhone 14 saw a rise in the popularity of other colors.

In a new report from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP), a survey of iPhone users revealed that shades of black or white are no longer the top choices. Instead, iPhone 14 preference has slowly begun to favor purple models.

Apple introduced a purple iPhone in 2019 with the iPhone 11 and offered it again with the iPhone 12, though the lineup didn't include it in the initial launch. The company omitted purple with the iPhone 13 but added it back with the iPhone 14 family.

As of December 2022, 42% of iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max users own the model in purple, compared to 23% for Space Black and Midnight and 11% for Starlight and Silver. Color choices for the iPhone 14 and 14 Plus are more even at 26% for Midnight, 12% for Starlight, 14% for red, 22% for purple, and topping with blue at 27%.

The expectation is that users should prefer white or black because Apple customers are keeping their iPhones longer, and conservative color choices sometimes sell better. But, Apple aggressively marketed the purple variant for the iPhone 14 lineup.

And while the fourth quarter of 2022 saw a shortage of the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max versions, the purple models were sometimes the most available.

"Apple had some insight into demand for purple iPhones based on the iPhone 11 and 12/mini experience," CIRP writes. "So they either properly anticipated high demand for purple phones, or their optimism about purple pushed iPhone 14 Pro/Max demand to available purple inventory."

There might also be specific demand trends based on gender and age, which CIRP will investigate in a later report.

4 Comments

royboy 18 Years · 453 comments

About 1 year ago

I wanted a 14 Pro Max in purple. But the purple used in the Pro models were too dark of a shade of purple, and sometimes, based upon lighting, the purple looked almost black. I was coming from a Jet Black iPhone and wanted a lighter color, so a silver IPhone Pro Max is what I bought. Maybe next year. A red color would be acceptable to me, but not a dark scarlet red that is being “shown” by some.

M68000 7 Years · 887 comments

royboy said:

I wanted a 14 Pro Max in purple. But the purple used in the Pro models were too dark of a shade of purple, and sometimes, based upon lighting, the purple looked almost black. I was coming from a Jet Black iPhone and wanted a lighter color, so a silver IPhone Pro Max is what I bought. Maybe next year. A red color would be acceptable to me, but not a dark scarlet red that is being “shown” by some.

I miss the vibrant colors of the iPhone 5c series. It seems most of Apple’s colors the last few years now are darker for whatever reason. I thought that dark green they had a few years back was awful.