CIRP Sees Dip in iPhone Q4 Average Retail Price; Memory Capacity Growth Slows

The iPhone 11 series was 69 percent of Apple's December-quarter smartphone sales, with the leader 11 model comprising 39 percent, reported Consumer Intelligence Research Partners Tuesday. IPhone 11 is the leading model in the Apple smartphone line, said analyst Josh Lowitz, while the 2018 model XR remains popular at its reduced price. The 2018 iPhone XS and XS Max had a somewhat smaller combined share a year ago vs. the iPhone 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max in the most recent quarter, he said. The researcher estimates the weighted average retail price (WARP) for iPhones in the U.S. at $809, up from $783 in the September quarter and off the peak of $839 in the December 2018 quarter. WARP reversed a downward trend during 2019, said analyst Mike Levin, aided by higher prices for iPhone 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max that were offset by the lower price of iPhone 11 relative to the comparable iPhone XR launched the previous year. The trend to increased storage capacity slowed, too, said Levin. Two-thirds of iPhone 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max customers bought increased storage capacity beyond the base 64 gigabyte configuration, while fewer than half of buyers of all other models bought more capacity. A year ago, and in previous December quarters, over half of buyers of almost all models bought increased storage capacity, Levin said. CIRP surveyed 500 U.S. Apple customers who bought an iPhone, iPad, Mac computer, or Apple Watch October-December.