Busting the Myth: Viral Video Proves Apple Stores Aren’t Deserted, But Will the iPhone 16 Still Launch on the 20th
Faced with the hot demand for iPhone 16’s first sale, some people hoped to find evidence that iPhone 16 was not selling well. So a blogger went to Apple’s retail store to shoot a video and unexpectedly found that the Apple retail store was empty. This attracted a lot of people’s attention. But is this really the case?
Some netizens immediately went to the Apple retail store in Guangzhou Tianhe Plaza to shoot videos to provide evidence. The videos showed that although the retail store was not crowded, it was definitely much better than the so-called empty store. Many consumers were buying iPhones, but the iPhone 16 had not arrived at this time.
The sales staff of Apple retail stores told netizens that the iPhone 16 will not arrive until the 20th at the earliest, so the queue for iPhone 16 must wait until at least the 20th. Why queue now? In contrast, many bloggers who buy iPhones have expressed that they will pay a higher price to buy iPhone 16 Pro max, and generally say that iPhone 16 Pro max can be purchased at a price of 500 to 1,000 yuan.
In fact, from the situation in previous years, we can see that no matter which generation of iPhone, even if the sales are not ideal later, there will still be queues to buy the first batch of iPhones on the market. This is because Apple’s user loyalty is extremely high. The information security and unique operation brought by its unique iOS system make these users always buy the new iPhone first. Therefore, when the iPhone is on the market, these loyal users are always the first to queue up to buy it.
As for what the blogger said about Apple retail stores being empty, it may not be false. For example, she chose a more remote Apple retail store, or an Apple authorized store, rather than an Apple direct store, and chose to go there during working hours when the retail store had just opened. There are very few people buying mobile phones at this time, so it is possible that the store is really empty. However, it does not mean that the iPhone 16 is unpopular.
Apple’s iPhone 16 this year is indeed quite controversial. When last year’s iPhone 15 sales failed to meet expectations, Apple made changes to this year’s iPhone 16. This year’s iPhone 16 series all use the A18 processor, which is different from the differentiated treatment of iPhone 14/15. The standard version of iPhone 14/15 uses the old processor, and only the Pro version uses the brand-new processor, which has pushed the Pro version to become the best-selling model, but it has also caused the iPhone’s sales to decline continuously. The iPhone 16 series uses the A18 processor in the hope of winning back those price-sensitive consumers.
However, as some consumers got the iPhone 16, they found from the test data of Geekbench that the A18 processors equipped with the standard version and Pro version of the iPhone 16 are very different. The single-core performance of the A18 processor equipped with the standard version of the iPhone 16 is equivalent to that of the A17 Pro, while the A18 Pro processor improves the performance by about 10%. Therefore, the A18 processor is suspected to be a renamed version of the A17 Pro, and the A18 Pro is a newly designed processor.
Apple’s approach has aroused doubts among consumers. As a result, the iPhone 16 Pro version may still be more popular in Apple’s sales in the future, and the sales of iPhone 16 may be difficult to meet expectations, which will lead to a further decline in iPhone 16 sales this year. What is not favorable to Apple is that for some reasons, the iPhone 16 sold by Apple in China will not be equipped with Apple’s AI technology, which has disappointed many consumers. The Chinese market is the largest iPhone market.
If the sales of iPhone 16 are not good, the well-known Apple analyst also speculated that the first sales of iPhone 16 may be 13% lower than that of iPhone 15 based on the pre-order situation of iPhone 16 in the first week, which shows that the situation is not good, but Apple still has its measures, that is, price reduction. Judging from the situation in previous years, price reduction has become Apple’s biggest killer. It can continue to reduce prices until consumers are tempted. iPhone 15 was reduced by 1,500 yuan in March this year, and the price was reduced by 2,350 yuan during the 618 promotion, which reversed the downward trend of iPhone 15 sales.
In general, the iPhone 16 may indeed experience poor sales, but it will never be as bad as some people say, that Apple retail stores are empty and no one buys it. After all, Apple has long occupied most of the high-end mobile phone market in China, and even at the worst time it still accounts for half of the market. The loyalty of this part of consumers exceeds industry expectations.
Original title: Apple retail stores are empty? Netizens made a video to refute that iPhone 16 will arrive on the 20th