As Apple prepares to premiere the iPhone 7 this Wednesday, analysts are wondering if this newest iPhone will be met with market malaise or pent-up consumer demand for the device–it has been two years since the iPhone 6 was released. Only time will tell how successful the launch will be, but data from Slice Intelligence shows that Cupertino’s newest smartphone is entering an online market that’s seen overall sales dip by 42 percent in the past year. While other smartphone brands like Samsung gained five percent more of the market at Apple's expense over the last year, the iPhone is still the most purchased smartphone as 61 percent of the category’s sales were on iPhones in the past 12 months.
iPhone launch sales storm forecast: lull before launch
Historically iPhone sales are lowest during the months of July and August. Demand is highest in September during the launch period. In September 2014, when the iPhone 6 launched, iPhone sales spiked to almost 39 times August 2014 levels, and this year's sales trends bear a similar calm-before-the-storm pattern.
Wireless headphone sales are already on the rise
One of the biggest--and controversial-- innovations the iPhone 7 is bringing to the market is the decision to remove the headphone jack in favor of wireless headphone compatibility. New data from Slice Intelligence shows that online consumers are already cutting the cord. Only 38 percent of headphones purchased online were bluetooth connected in July 2015 while nearly half of all headphone orders were on cordless models this July. In June the majority of headphones purchased online were wireless. This is likely attributed to the Bose’s release of four new wireless headphones, just in time for the iPhone 7.
We will continue to report on iPhone sales as orders come in. Follow Slice Intelligence as we report on the earliest signals of demand for the iPhone 7.
About this data
With a panel of over 4 million online shoppers, Slice Intelligence gives the most detailed, and accurate digital commerce data available, and is reported daily.
Slice Intelligence is the only service to measure digital commerce directly from the consumer, across all retailers, at the item level, and over time. Our retailer-independent methodology precisely measures commerce as it happens. By extracting detailed information from hundreds of millions of aggregated and anonymized e-receipts, Slice can map the entire Purchase Graph, connecting each and every consumer to all their purchases.
Slice gets its data from e-receipts – not a browser, app or software installed by the end-user – so its measurement reflects comprehensive shopping behavior across multiple devices, over time which are key in an increasingly omnichannel retail world. Slice Intelligence is the exclusive e-commerce data provider for the NPD’s Checkout Tracking e-commerce service.