Apple iPhone 7 (Photo : Twitter / TheVerge)
In spite of its so-called boring feature upgrades it unboxed with, the iPhone 7 (and the iPhone 7 Plus) is en route to close 2016 with more than 100 million units sold as reports indicated that Apple's (AAPL) latest flagship is likely to outsell the iPhone 6S.
Barely a week into commercial availability, the iPhone 7 initial market share now stands at 1.2 percent, according to BGR that points to the latest provided by analytic firm Localytics. The same report highlighted that in the same period last year, Apple's 2015 flagships (iPhone 6S and 6S Plus) occupied market share of 1.3 percent, somehow indicating that by the end of September the 2016 models will have outpaced their immediate predecessors.
And it would be hardly surprising as unlike the 6S and 6S Plus in 2015, the new iPhones rolled out nearly 30 market destinations across the globe, BGR said on its report. It is highly likely too that after a full week, some 13 million iPhone 7s will have been sold worldwide.
According to ZDNet, the trend seems to illustrate that the iPhone 7 will perform better than the iPhone 6S. "The latest phone was showing high popularity through online orders in the US and China," the report said, adding that UK sales pattern seems headed to the same direction.
Notwithstanding the premium starting price - $650 for the iPhone 7 and $770 for the iPhone 7 Plus - South Korean analysts are predicting that the latest Apple handsets will clear the 100 million mark by the end of December 2016, ZDNet said.
One possible cause of the forecasted massive upgrade moves is that owners of iPhone 6 and 6 Plus will be prompted to jump to the new models, and possibly too a sizeable chunk of older iPhones or those still using the 4-inch iPhones.
There seems to be little chance that iOS device users will switch to Android despite the recent release of Samsung's Galaxy S7 and Note 7. It will be the other way around, which IBK Investment & Securities said is a direct result of the exploding Note 7 battery that led to a global recall.
"It is indisputable that the Galaxy Note 7 incident has become a huge plus for Apple," the Korean-based investment firm told ZDNet.
And it's unlikely that the Apple (AAPL) iPhone 7's road to 100 million unit sales and beyond will be derailed by Samsung's decision to resume selling the Galaxy Note 7 this week, the report said.
