New iPhones Don’t Create As Much Buzz As They Used To

As Apple is about to unveil its latest iPhone lineup along with a couple of other new or updated products this week, the anticipation among the company’s faithful has been slowly building.

But, as Statista’s Felix Richter notes, while while Apple’s launch events are still headline news in tech blogs (and every news outlet covering the tech industry really), the excitement around the company’s iPhone announcements has cooled off a bit in recent years.

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With leaks and predictions become more accurate each year and real surprises becoming increasingly rare, Google Trends data suggests that new iPhone models no longer create as much buzz as they used to. Looking at global search interest for the term “iPhone” shows that the latest iPhone unveilings failed to spark as much enthusiasm online as earlier launch events.

Last year’s unveiling of the iPhone 13 for example led to search interest on Google roughly half the volume of the iPhone 5’s debut in 2012, which is when the iPhone hype peaked (at least in terms of Google searches).

Goldman Sachs’ Rod Hall previews Apple’s annual product launch event slated for this afternoon (1300ET). 

Heading into Apple’s big annual iPhone event Rod/GIR are most interested in how the company will approach pricing.

They believe it is unlikely that Apple raises Pro model prices because this potentially would generate lower gross profit contribution by prompting Pro owners to downshift in greater numbers to lower ASP non-Pro devices. Rather, Rod/GIR believe Apple’s strategy revolves around maximizing margins in the non-Pro models and “catching” some Pro downgrades with a higher ASP 14 Max product that also has strong margin characteristics.

They do believe Apple is likely to correct local currency prices for USD strength as the company did in Japan earlier.

As for features we see the potential for satellite communications in Pro models as most interesting because it could come along with a service plan option for Apple similar to Garmin’s current inReach satellite products.

You will find more infographics at Statista

In addition to the iPhone updates viewers are interested in the possibility for a higher priced Pro Watch as well as an update to the popular AirPods Pro product.