Apple welcomed customers to its stores around the world on Friday to unveil the iPhone 16, Apple Watch Series 10 and AirPods 4.
The new products were announced at an event earlier this month and have been available for pre-order since September 13. The company lit up the glass cube at its Apple Store on Fifth Avenue in New York City as a nod to the improved Siri feature that will light up the edges of the new iPhone’s screen when that feature launches next month.
Apple’s new iPhones mark the company’s latest move into artificial intelligence. The new Apple Intelligence features will launch starting in October. The new features will allow customers to rewrite text, remove objects from photos, and speak to an improved Siri. The software enhancements will only be available on the iPhone 16 and last year’s iPhone 15 Pro devices.
A view of Apple’s new iPhone 16 at an Apple Store on Regent Street in London, United Kingdom, on September 20, 2024.
Rasid Necati Aslim | Anadolu | Getty Images
But Apple shares slipped on Monday after analyst reports suggested demand for the latest iPhones was lower than expected. TF Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said in a note on Monday that first weekend sales were about 12% lower than last year for the iPhone 15. Barclays, JPMorgan and Bank of America also pointed out that delivery times could lead to lower demand for the more expensive iPhone Pro models compared to last year.
CNBC’s Steve Kovach spoke with CEO Tim Cook outside Apple’s Fifth Avenue store and asked if sales looked better or worse than last year. “I don’t know yet. It’s only the first hour, so we’ll see,” Cook said.
On Friday, UBS analysts warned that investors should not overreact to the apparent lower sales, as this data is also collected by analyzing wait times for new iPhone models, and these were longer last year in part due to supply chain disruptions.
Apple Store Fifth Avenue in New York
Steve Kovach |
“Prior to the iPhone 16 announcement, our analysis suggested that the lack of a killer app and the arguably somewhat half-hearted rollout of Apple Intelligence would dampen demand,” the UBS analysts wrote. “While we continue to argue that the iPhone/iOS collection of attributes is evolutionary rather than revolutionary, we caution against investors overreacting to data that suggests somewhat muted demand initially.”
UBS analysts said supply chain disruptions last year “slightly skewed/extended last year’s data,” resulting in longer wait times for customers on Pro models. Last year, UBS wrote, customers faced 41 days of wait time on some iPhone 15 Pro Max pre-orders, compared to a 26-day wait time for the iPhone 16 Pro Max this year.
“Nevertheless, data across all models and regions about a week after launch support our view that a supercycle is not imminent, with overall U.S. and Chinese data disappointing year-over-year,” they wrote.
Devices of the new Apple Watch Series 10 model can be seen after the presentation at Apple headquarters.
Andrei Sokolov | Image Alliance |
The Apple Watch Series 10 offers a larger screen than previous models. It will support new sleep apnea detection and other new features, like the earlier Series 9. The AirPods 4 offer a refresh with a smaller charging case and a noise-cancelling option.
CNBC tested the new iPhone 16 Pro Max and the Apple Watch Series 10 earlier this week.
— CNBC’s Michael Bloom and Steve Kovach contributed to this report.
