iPhone XS Series Shipments Expected To Reach 75-80 Million Before Year Ends

iPhones 2018 — Apple’s new iPhones are expected to ship around 75-80 million units this year. Reuters/Stephen Lam

Apple’s new iPhones could be met with strong demand from consumers worldwide this year. An analyst even predicts the new iOS 12 handsets to ship around 75-80 million units before the year 2018 ends.

Ming-Chi Kuo, an analyst at China-based TianFeng Securities, said that Apple’s shipments of the iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max and iPhone XR are very likely to reach 75-80 million units in the remainder of this year, Digitimes reported Monday citing a Chinese-language report from Commercial Times.

According to Kuo, shipment outlook for each handset varies. The iPhone XR is predicted to account for the largest portion of the shipments, while the flagship device, the iPhone XS, is expected to account for a fraction of the total number of shipment units.

Kuo believes that there will be strong demand for the iPhone XR, especially in China, because the model has dual-SIM support. Moreover, it is the most affordable out of the three devices. Thus, Kuo thinks the iPhone XR shipments would be around 55-60 percent of the total figure. This is bigger than his previous 50-55 percent prediction for the device.

As for the iPhone XS, Kuo has lowered the percentage of the model from 15-20 percent to 10-15 percent. Based on his analysis, the iPhone XS doesn’t have the same appeal as its siblings and so there is low market expectation for the device.

The bigger premium device, which is the iPhone XS Max, on the other hand, is expected to do better than the iPhone XS. Kuo predicts the phone’s shipments to account for 25-30 percent of the total new iPhone shipments in the second half.

Kuo also has a positive prediction for the Apple Watch Series 4. Because the smartwatch has improved functionality and support for electrocardiogram monitoring, the analyst claims that its sales will also be higher than expected.

Kuo says that the new watchOS device could account for 50-55 percent of the total Apple Watch shipments in 2018. This would translate to 9 million units since the renowned analyst predicts Apple’s smartwatch shipments this year to reach 18 million units.