iPhone XS Models Suffer Weak Initial Sales In Samsung’s Home Turf

It appears Apple’s current lineup of iPhones isn’t getting as much attention as last year’s models in Samsung Electronics’ home country, South Korea. The performance of the iPhone XS, XS Max and XR is so bad that the total number of units sold thus far is down by some 60 percent compared to the sales of their predecessors the year before.

Industry data presented by Yonhap on Friday revealed that Apple’s latest iPhones only sold around 170,000 units since their release in South Korea last week. The cumulative data was taken from the country’s three leading carriers: KT Corp., SK Telecom Co. and LG Uplus Corp.

The total number of sales of the current-generation iPhones is down by 60 percent compared to the figures recorded for the iPhone 8, 8 Plus and iPhone X last year. The iPhone 8 models sold 180,000 units during their first week in the South Korean market, while the iPhone X managed to sell 100,000 units in its first week despite its three-week delay.

In the U.S. market, the sales of the iPhone XS models actually started stronger than the iPhone X lineup. 9To5Mac learned last month that the iPhone XS and XS Max’s first-week sales easily beat out last year’s sales of the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus due mainly to the delayed launch of the then-highly anticipated iPhone X.

Despite the significant improvement in the iPhone XS models’ performance, they still failed to surpass the record made by the iPhone 7. In terms of market penetration, the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus still hold the first and second rankings, followed by the iPhone 6s.

The iPhone XR, which is the most affordable variant of the three that’s expected to do well on the market, also failed to make a mark this year. Rosenblatt Securities analyst Jun Zhang even said in a report obtained by Investor’s Business Daily that the iPhone XR did not meet initial sales expectations.

“After the first two weeks, we believe the iPhone XR sell-through rate continues to be weaker than initially expected,” the analyst said. “This leads us to believe that Apple may begin another round of iPhone XR production cuts for calendar Q4. We believe Apple may reduce production for the iPhone XR by an additional 4 million to 5 million units …”