Apple sets new iPhone sales record, still lags market

Apple announced it sold over 10 million iPhone 6 and 6 Plus phones during the first weekend of sales, a new record for the company. The phones, which were released to market on Friday, are currently on sale in 10 countries with 20 more getting them on 26th September, and 115 expected in total by the end of the year.

The company expressed delight in the new sales record. “Sales for iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus exceeded our expectations for the launch weekend, and we couldn’t be happier,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO.

“We would like to thank all of our customers for making this our best launch ever, shattering all previous sell-through records by a large margin. While our team managed the manufacturing ramp better than ever before, we could have sold many more iPhones with greater supply and we are working hard to fill orders as quickly as possible.”

Despite Apple reaching a new record, a look at the company’s sales during last year’s launch weekend, when the company sold nine million units, reveals that the company’s smartphone sales growth is modest compared to the overall market. Recent industry analyst numbers reveal the overall smartphone market is growing at a rate of more than 26% year-on-year, while this year’s 10 million is only 11% up on last year’s total.

The Apple ‘new record sales’ press release is now an industry tradition, and the new iPhones look set to be very popular, but within the context of the broader market Apple is still lagging in terms of volume. This situation will persist until Apple decides to launch a much cheaper version, which it doesn’t look likely to do anytime soon.