People are rushing to buy Apple’s iPhone 17, but it’s probably not because of the iPhone 17
More people went to Apple’s website when preorders for the new iPhone began than have since 2022.
Apple’s iPhone 17 went on sale today and it looks like it might be a relative hit. That might not have much to do with the iPhone 17 itself.
More people turned up for Apple’s online iPhone 17 event earlier this month than have since 2022, according to data shared with Sherwood News by digital market intelligence company Similarweb. The same goes for traffic a few days later, when the phone became available for preorder, suggesting more people might be buying a new iPhone during the preorder period than have in three years.
At the event, Apple unveiled a new slimmer iPhone Air as well as a basic iPhone and an iPhone Pro with faster chips, along with better cameras and larger displays. Apple didn’t mention much about AI, but Apple’s rollout of AI has been spotty at best.
However, people don’t really buy new iPhones because of new features or incremental hardware improvements. Instead, the main driver of iPhone upgrades is because someone’s old phone is obsolete or broken or its battery just doesn’t last as long as it used to.
And 2025 happens to be a big year for older iPhones. That’s because during the early years of the pandemic, Apple experienced a “supercycle” of iPhone upgrades as people trapped at home with extra cash shelled out for new tech.
2020 and 2021 also coincided with natural upgrade cycles, as many had been holding on to their previous iPhones like the iPhone 6 for years at that point. Some had been waiting for a 5G phone as well, which Apple rolled out in 2020, so it was as good a time as any for a new phone.
Here we are, four or five years later, and the people who upgraded in 2020 and 2021 are likely dealing with shorter battery life, smashed screens, and all the other annoyances of old phones.
Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives recently estimated that “315 million iPhone users of 1.5 billion users worldwide have not upgraded their phones in over 4 years speaking to an upgrade opportunity on the horizon for Cupertino with China front and center.”
That’s good for Apple, but it doesn’t mean it’s because of anything Apple in particular has done.
