Bet the rose gold... oops sorry Orange one is the king.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
iPhone 17 Lineup Sales Outperforming Last Year's Models
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Never knew people are so insecure they have to show off a phone... I mean I knew flexing, but flexing for a phone? Makes a silly things to do even sillier.
Exactly. Of course a smaller screen size phone has it disadvantages but the advantages outweigh them when both can have the same hardware.
Man the 16 was such a turd. Purchased it to future proof myself with all this new AI stuff and it turned out to be a nothing burger. Looks like people were much smarter than myself with skipping it.
While the 12 mini and 12 Pro silicone were the same, the storage size, memory size, display type, pro motion, cameras were all different besides the 12 Pro being MUCH larger and heavier, so I'm not sure what you are referring to. The mini never had a chance because the specs other than the processor were nerfed. So that combined with yes some people didn't like the smaller size but more they didn't like the battery life doomed the mini. The Plus was doomed IMO because the people who do/did prefer the larger screen also preferred those Pro features, but again at least they had a choice. People who preferred the smaller form factor never did.
iPhone 12 Pro didn't even have ProMotion. The mini had the same 1,200 nit (HDR) display. Of course the cameras were different - that's a given. Everything else was virtually the same. You should take a closer look at the spec sheet.
The Plus didn't have those advantages. It was shortchanged by having a last gen processor. The notch instead of Dynamic Island was immediately obvious even to laypeople.
Last year, I almost bought ultramarine iPhone 16. But after my second visit to the Apple Store, I said to myself, "I can wait another year." This year, seeing how many improvements the iPhone 17 has over the 16, I finally decided it is the perfect time to upgrade from the iPhone 11 Pro.
My error, yes ProMotion was added with the 13 Pro, so one of the two mini's did not have that. The 12 Pro did actually have higher non-HDR brightness though so my point of a better screen besides just size is valid although more trivial. I see you conveniently left that out and just focused on the HDR brightness... As well as there were plenty of other differences you seem to be ignoring between the 12 mini and the 12 Pro including telephoto lens, LiDAR, recording at 60fps, supported ProRAW and of course the SS materials and the mini starting at lower capacities. It became even worse with the 13 Pro when they added ProMotion. Again my point stands that they NEVER made a Pro mini and a lot of people didn't chose the mini because of the lack of features like those.
With the Plus yes they didn't have the Pro features either but if they wanted either those without changing form factor you had a choice. Also while the 14 Plus didn't have dynamic island both the 15 Plus and 16 Plus did. The 14 Plus, 15 Plus and 16 Pluseses did have nerfed processors but so did the regular 14, 15 and 16 and they sold well. Which is again why I feel the the Pluses didn't sell well is because people who wanted bigger screens also wanted those "Pro" features so they either gave up the screen size and went with the Pro, or didn't and went with the Pro Max.
I went from a 13 Pro to a 16 Pro (got an excellent trade-in deal). I have no regrets. It was a huge upgrade to the 13. Also, going to the 16 makes a potential 20th anniversary phone an easier upgrade in 2027.
Although, the orange 17 Pro is still tempting.
Last edited:
The main point is... the 17 and hypothetical 17 Plus are a lot closer to 17 Pro/Max.
The 14/15/16 Plus were not close to Pro Max. The fact 14/15 Plus had last gen chips was a non-starter for many buyers.
The 12 mini was a lot closer to 12 Pro.
Are we sure the Plus and Air will have the exact same sales trajectory/curve? It seems pretty early to call it for such a new and different type of iPhone.
Is there a visible and reasonable path to victory for the Air?
The first 10 days represents purchases from enthusiasts. If the uptake is poor during this period, then demand would fall on the majority of mature adopters. These are regular, normal people who upgrade every 3-4 years or more.
Is there a reason normal people would pick a niche device to upgrade to? At $999, Air is well into premium territory. Would it make sense that regular people used to buying $799 iPhone 12/13/14 suddenly jump to $999?
These are good questions. I don't know if it's reasonable or not, but the main reason I wonder if the Air possibly has a different trajectory is simply that it's very new and different--in a way we may have never exactly encountered before with iPhones. It's not like other introduced iPhones models which have been a more straightforward smaller or bigger or heavier or lighter or more specs or less specs, which is easier to extrapolate predictions from existing models. The Air is a very new and unique combination of dimensions and weight and specs (and price). To me this introduces an unknown variable that I think others here brush off too quickly and confidently. And I would say the same thing if the Air did exceptionally well in the first 10 days. My point is not predicting success or failure, only that the normal sample size may not be enough for an abnormal phone.
I agree first 10 days is most likely enthusiast-heavy, but these people also might tend to put heavier emphasis on specs, for which the Air is the most disadvantaged in the lineup except in chip and screen size (if smaller is a disadvantage). This does leave it to the normals to decide the Air's fate, more than I think the other models. I think it's possible a good portion of them could value a thin light 6.5" phone despite the trade offs and price. Or it's possible it's too expensive for what it offers for the vast majority. I'm not convinced this has been answered yet.
The S25 Edge sales performance answers quite a bit about the demand for thin phones. That's a huge data point in my opinion. Certainly, there's a bunch of differences from user demographics to price that's different about the Air. But at the same time, if the global market share leader failed so spectacularly with the Edge, what makes Apple's attempt so different? It seems likely the direction has already been set and there's not going to be wholesale adoption of the Air.
Surveys of normal, non-enthusiast smartphone buyers report things like battery life, performance, camera features, storage size, are what motivates them to upgrade. Thinness is at the very bottom of the list. Consumers been consistently asking for oranges, pears, and bananas. Samsung and Apple this year offered a carrot. Why would the regular folk, previously surveyed as being fruit people, suddenly choose a vegetable?
Good to know. Just got the Orange 17 Pro Max 10 days ago. Wonderful iPhone and color. Wish Apple will have a bright color every year. Even the base 17 is a great phone with all the improvements like 120Hz, double the storage, better cameras, bigger screen. Can easily recommend it. Think it will sell very well in the coming months.
but but al al al
as expected al is not a reason to buy a smartphone. not when apps like chatGPT and gemini exist
as expected al is not a reason to buy a smartphone. not when apps like chatGPT and gemini exist
I'm sitting on the sidelines with my 13 Mini but these phones look like the clunkiest and ugliest for a while. Yet people are buying them up like hotcakes. 🤷
EDIT: from the messages here it looks like the orange color and specs are the main reasons. I'm really surprised that specs are selling phones when the gains are so incremental these days. Colors are a bit hard to understand too, given the tendency for people to put them into cases when buying them and take them out again when it's time to sell.
EDIT: from the messages here it looks like the orange color and specs are the main reasons. I'm really surprised that specs are selling phones when the gains are so incremental these days. Colors are a bit hard to understand too, given the tendency for people to put them into cases when buying them and take them out again when it's time to sell.
Last edited:
I'm still looking for videos on YouTube of people downgrading it, might try it myself when I eventually get it