Apple welcomed customers to its stores around the world on Friday, introducing the iPhone 16, Apple Watch Series 10 and AirPods 4.
The new products were announced at an event earlier this month and available for preorder starting September 13. The company lit up a glass cube in its Fifth Avenue Apple Store in New York City in tribute to an improved Siri that will light up the edges of the screens of new iPhones launching next month.
Apple’s new iPhones mark the company’s latest foray into artificial intelligence, with new Apple Intelligence features starting to roll out in October. The new features will allow customers to rewrite text, remove objects from photos and talk to an improved Siri. The software improvements are only available on the iPhone 16 and last year’s iPhone 15 Pro devices.
But Apple shares fell on Monday after analysts suggested demand for the latest iPhones was weaker than expected. TF Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said in a note on Monday that first weekend sales of the iPhone 15 were down about 12% year over year. Barclays, JP Morgan and Bank of America also noted that longer delivery times could dampen demand for the more expensive iPhone Pro models compared to last year.
CNBC’s Steve Kovach sat down with CEO Tim Cook outside Apple’s Fifth Avenue store and asked him if sales were better or worse than last year. “I don’t know yet. It’s only the first hour, so we’ll see,” Cook said.
On Friday, analysts at UBS advised investors not to overreact to the apparent sales decline, because the data is also collected by analyzing wait times for new iPhone models, which were longer last year due in part to supply chain disruptions.
“Ahead of the iPhone 16 announcement, our analysis suggested that a lack of a killer app and arguably somewhat half-baked introduction of Apple Intelligence would dampen demand,” the UBS analysts wrote. “While we still argue the collection of iPhone/iOS attributes are more evolutionary than revolutionary, we caution that investors not overreact to data that suggests somewhat initial tepid demand.”
Longer wait times for Pro models were caused, according to UBS analysts, by supply chain delays that “slightly distorted/extended last year’s data” in the previous year. Customers had to wait 41 days for some iPhone 15 Pro Max pre-orders last year, according to UBS, whereas they only had to wait 26 days for the iPhone 16 Pro Max this year.
Although US and China data is poor compared to last year, they stated, “data across all models and regions roughly a week post launch support our view that a super-cycle is not imminent.”
The Apple Watch Series 10 offers a larger screen than previous models. Like the previous Series 9, it will support new sleep apnea detection and other new features. The AirPods 4 offers a refresh with a smaller charging case and noise-canceling options.