New iPhones Are off to a Great Start

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Three days after the official launch of the new iPhones on Friday,  Apple reported that the new devices had set a new sales record during their first weekend on sale. With more than 10 million iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus units sold in three days, the new models beat last year’s record when 9 million units of the iPhone 5s and 5c had been sold. 

According to Apple’s CEO Tim Cook, supply constraints were the only limiting factor in achieving even higher sales this year. After Apple had long been reluctant to release a larger-screen smartphone, the outlook that the company would finally give in to consumer demand and release a larger phone had prompted analysts to predict the mother lode of all upgrade cycles prior to the phone’s release.

Consumers Want Smartphones to Be Big or Cheap

The upside to Apple’s everlasting patent brawl with Samsung is that every once in a while some interesting internal documents surface that grant us a rare look behind the scenes of the most secretive company in the world. This week an internal presentation slide came to the public attention, in which Apple concedes that consumers want what Apple currently doesn’t have: smartphones that are either large (>4 inch) or cheap (<$300). The fact that Apple realized it was a mistake to ignore the big-screen trend for so long is all but proof that this year’s new iPhone will indeed feature a larger screen as rumours have suggested for some time now.

We’ve recreated the chart that shows why Apple has changed course on big-screen smartphones.

This chart breaks down smartphone sales growth in 2012 by screen size and price.

You will find more statistics at Statista