This iPhone 16 model got a big sales boost, but one popular pick has slipped

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Apple will report its quarterly earnings next week, providing an official look into iPhone 16 sales in the holiday quarter. For now, though, a new report helps inform what we should expect from the sales mix for different iPhone 16 models.

CIRP report shows iPhone 16 models growing and declining

CIRP published a new report today that provides a breakdown of iPhone sales from the holiday quarter.

The report doesn’t provide actual sales numbers, but rather focuses on the mix of different models in Apple’s lineup following the iPhone 16’s launch.

As usual, the iPhone 16 Pro Max was most popular, but a more interesting story involves the trajectories of growth or decline for two devices.

For example, the model that saw the most growth in the quarter was the base iPhone 16:

The base iPhone 16 was the second most popular model at 21% of sales. That is a significant increase from the 15% of sales for iPhone 15 in the December 2023 quarter, and a return to the level of previous base iPhones.

While the model experiencing setbacks was actually the overall most successful:

The high-end iPhone 16 Pro Max model was the best seller, accounting for 23% of sales. That is a smaller share compared to last year’s 15 Pro Max, which had 26% of sales in the December 2023 quarter.

The full breakdown is available in CIRP’s chart:

iPhone 16 sales mix: wrap-up

Apple did make the base iPhone 16 especially good this year, so the growth of that model shouldn’t be surprising. Based on the chart, it’s possible the growth came from shoppers opting against the base iPhone 15, since that model saw a decline compared to the 14’s performance in 2023.

The Pro Max decline wasn’t so significant that it lost its top spot, but CIRP does say that the combined Pro Max and Pro sales accounted for the lowest total percentage of iPhones in the past five December quarters.

It will be interesting to see how the iPhone 17 lineup shakes things up with the new 17 Air model debuting, and a powerful iPhone SE update around the corner too.

What do you think of this iPhone 16 sales breakdown? Let us know in the comments.