Malcolm Owen
Apple is hoping for a great second half of 2024, with the company reportedly having expectations that iPhone 16 shipments will be about 10% higher than its 2023 figures.
Apple's presentation of Apple Intelligence at WWDC may have invigorated sales of its smartphone, thanks to the potential of Apple Intelligence. With the prospect of an AI boost, Apple is now hoping that consumer sentiment will translate into more sales.
Supply chain members have been warned by Apple that it is hoping to achieve a 10% growth in shipments compared to the second half of 2023. The source familiar with the matter told Bloomberg that it would build on top of the 81 million iPhone 15 units that shipped in the second half of the year.
Sources also say that the reception of Apple Intelligence features has helped embolden this outlook.
A shared outlook
The report's claim echoes those of other observers seeing a confident smartphone producer at work.
On July 1, a report said Apple had increased its chip order from TSMC. The increase was sufficient enough to propose iPhone sales of between 90 million and 100 million units.
By contrast, the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro had an order volume from September 2023 in the region of 80 million to 90 million.
A July 8 note to investors from analysts offered that a massive upgrade cycle, a so-called "Supercycle," is expected for the iPhone 16. A lot of it is driven by the addition of Apple Intelligence and the potential for AI firms to offer more services to consumers.
It's not only consumer demand for Apple Intelligence features prompting a potential wave of upgrades. Analysts on June 28 told investors that China's smartphone market is recovering, and so were Apple's fortunes.
Observing May 2024 sales, Apple's revenue from the region was starting to increase, with a 44% increase in sales compared to April. On a year-on-year basis, May 2024 was up 40%.
A change in confidence
This sentiment is in stark contrast to claims from March, when Apple's troubles in China led to a cut in expected shipments.
In April, it was indicated that shipments in the first quarter of 2024 had dropped 9.6% year-on-year. At the same time, it was observed that Chinese vendors and chief rival Samsung were seeing growth.
Even going back to November 2023, there was speculation that China shipments were down more than expected. There was an anticipation of a continued downward trend in China throughout 2024.
Now, half a year later, it seems things have brightened up for Apple from that dour outlook.
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9 Comments
I doubt there will be a 10% increase in iPhone sales for the iPhone 16 introduction. For one, none of the AI features Apple is hyping will be available this year - judging by their complete absence in the 3rd developer beta of iOS 18, we're talking about 2025 here. And then people have to be convinced that these features are actually worth buying a new phone for. So I doubt Apple will see any benefits from the introduction of AI until iPhone 17 - September 2025.
And I think unless there's a truly remarkable improvement in Siri's capabilities, there won't be much of a bump at all. Don't know how many folks would splurge for a new iPhone for the privilege of being able to search ones email or photo library in more ways - or to rephrase one's email composition.
Give me a much better Siri and a higher-res optical zoom and I'll stand in line.
Apple really jumped the gun on this announcement. Their AI features look great but are still probably a year away from being delivered and ironed out so can only guess they are masking embarrassment at how outdated the performance of Siri and predictive text, etc, are looking in 2024. My 256GB 14 Pro is only two years old and as poor as the basic functionality is for some stuff, it’s still a fast phone so will just wait for new features to be ironed out with the iPhone 17 or 18 pro.
Really cannot see the attraction of ai , looks like another gimmick to me