Apple’s priciest iPhone is the most shipped model in the world

Despite ongoing global economic headaches, the top-end iPhone 14 Pro Max was the most popular smartphone globally in the first half of this year, according to analyst Omdia.

Apple flogged a total of 26.5 million units of the model during H1 2023 according to Omdia’s Smartphone Model Market Tracker. The iPhone 14 Pro Max is Apple’s most expensive model in the latest 14 series released last September, selling for between $1,099 to $1,599.

Apple also took the second spot with the Apple iPhone 14 Pro – the second most expensive model in the series, as well as third place with the iPhone 14. In total Apple phones, which are on average more expensive than the market base line anyway, accounted for five models in the top ten.

This continues the trend from last year when the iPhone 13 was the top selling model for the same period with a total of 33.7 million units shipped, and the iPhone 13 Pro Max took second place with 23 million units shipped.

The ‘premium’ smartphone market for which Apple’s phones are the exemplars is steadily increasing, apparently because there is so much demand for new iPhones when they become available. This is contrasted with the mid to low end of the market which is experiencing ‘negative growth’ due to the wider economic situation and the growth of the used smartphone market.

“The slump in the mid to low-end market is expected to continue into the second half of this year, and the increasing portion of the premium market is expected to continue in the second half of this year with the launch of the new iPhone 15 series,” said Jusy Hong, Senior Research Manager at Omdia.

“Therefore, shipments of Android based smartphone OEMs, which have a high portion of mid- to low-priced smartphones, will inevitably see another round of negative growth this year. On the other hand, Apple’s shipments of Pro and Pro Max will increase due to solid demand for premium models, but overall iPhone shipments this year will be similar to last year or decrease slightly due to weak demand for standard and plus models.”

While Omdia expects that global smartphone shipments will decline again this year in general, it just goes to show that even in these times of economic strife the demand for Apple’s top dollar models remains remarkably resilient.

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