It sure looks like fewer people are rushing to buy the new iPhone this year
Apple's big bet on AI isn't paying off with consumers yet
The incorporation of AI into the iPhone doesn’t seem to be doing much for Apple just yet.
A look at global traffic to Apple.com shows that over the past few years, fewer unique visitors have been showing up to watch Apple’s annual hardware event. And even fewer are turning up when it’s time to pre-order iPhones. Presumably, that means fewer people are buying them, too. Apple didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Typically, traffic each year to Apple’s website peaks on the day of the iPhone event and jumps again a few days later, when the new phones become available for pre-order, according to data online measurement firm Similarweb shared with Sherwood.
A look at the last three years shows that traffic has gone down.
Here’s that chart again isolating the day of the event and the day pre-orders begin:
Apple has been hoping that the integration of its AI, Apple Intelligence, would help spur an upgrade cycle, and help flagging iPhone sales.
The thing is, people don’t really buy new iPhones for the new features. Rather consumers buying new iPhones typically cite a slow, broken, or lost phone, according to survey data from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners. And iPhones have been lasting a lot longer these days, while its new features have failed to wow.
Of course, consumers could be waiting for Apple Intelligence to come out in October to see how well it actually works. For now, they’re not that interested in the iPhone 16.
