Kuo: iPhone XS pre-orders are lackluster, Apple Watch Series 4 proving popular

Just two days after the pre-order period for Apple’s iPhone XS, XS Max, and Apple Watch Series 4 commenced, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo is back with his latest report, this time providing an insight into how the company’s new products are performing.

Starting off on a slightly less positive note, Kuo claims that pre-orders for the regular iPhone XS have been “lower-than-expected.” This is presumably due to a lack of external changes and new features in comparison to last year’s iPhone X. Additionally, it seems that interest in the larger iPhone XS Max and the cheaper iPhone XR are also playing a roll in the weaker numbers. In any case, Kuo has now lowered his sales forecasts for the model to 10% to 15% of all iPhone shipments, down from the original expectations of 15% to 20%. Subsequently, Kuo has also raised estimates for the yet-to-be-released iPhone XR to between 55% and 60%.

Moving on to the larger iPhone XS Max, initial numbers are looking positive, especially in China where demand for the smartphone is high due to a combination of its new dual-SIM capabilities, the larger display, and the new gold color. Nevertheless, this is as expected and Kuo maintains his iPhone XS Max estimates of between 25% and 30% of the expected 75-80 million iPhone sales throughout the remaining months of 2018.

Switching over to the wearables category, it’s claimed that pre-orders for the Apple Watch Series 4 are “Better than expected” thanks to a number of new features such as electrocardiogram support and the larger display. Due to this, the latest-generation wearable is expected to boost Apple Watch sales during the remaining months of 2018 to over 18 million units, with the newest model account for just over half of these.

source: Ming-Chi Kuo via MacRumors