It is now widely accepted that Apple will be launching three new iPhones this year — an iPhone XI which is believed to be the successor to the iPhone X, a Plus-sized version of the aforementioned handset and an iPhone 9 which is expected to be the budget offering that will come with an LCD display as opposed to an OLED panel that will adorn the higher end versions. Now, an analyst has chimed in by claiming that the new iPhones will see a massive wave of upgrades in the 12 to 18 month period because of the diversity that Apple will be offering its customers this year, a report by 9to5Mac states.
The report goes on to state that GBH analyst Daniel Ives has predicted as many as 350 million units will be sold in the next 12 to 18 month period. The analyst claims that though the current generation of iPhones did well, a lot of iPhone owners refrained from upgrading because the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus was too similar to older models, while the iPhone X was too costly for most.
Ives says, “The new phones “will help capture the underlying demand [for] upgrades among customers that have decided to bypass the … cycle this time around, with price points and features that catalyze fence-sitting iPhone customers onto their next smartphone.” He adds that Chinese consumers will likely contribute the most to the upgrades by stating, “There about 100 million iPhone customers in the country, and about 60 million to 70 million of them are due for an upgrade over the next 18 months.”
However, the report goes on to add that this prediction is nothing new as anytime Apple sales do not surpass expectations, analysts go on to predict that the next generation of iPhones will see a substantially greater demand.