Demand for the iPhone 16 is lower than expected, and employee discounts are already available

Apple employees can purchase Apple products, including iPhones, at a discount, but in order to ensure there were enough units to be distributed to customers, no discounts were applied to new products. However, because demand for the iPhone 16 series was lower than expected, it seems that the iPhone 16 series is already available for purchase at an employee discount.

Apple employees can buy an iPhone 16 on discount — a sign of weak demand, analyst says

Ming-Chi Kuo, an analyst familiar with Apple information, reported that pre-orders for the iPhone 16 totaled 37 million units, down 12.7% compared to the iPhone 15.

The numbers were below expectations, and as a result, employee discounts that normally aren't applied until a few weeks after a new product's release are already being applied to the iPhone 16, Guo wrote in a post on X.

Apple employees can already purchase the iPhone 16 with their employee discount. Typically, employees have had to wait several weeks after the release of new iPhone models before being able to buy. This could be another sign that the early demand for the iPhone 16 is below…

— Ming-Chi Kuo (@mingchikuo)

September 18, 2024

Guo points out that one of the reasons for the iPhone 16's poor sales is that its biggest selling point, Apple Intelligence, is not available at the time of purchase. In fact, Apple describes the iPhone 16 as the ' iPhone for Apple Intelligence .'

Apple announces new personal AI 'Apple Intelligence', Siri supports ChatGPT in partnership with OpenAI - GIGAZINE

Apple Intelligence will be available in English in the United States from October 2024. It will then be rolled out to Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and the UK from December, with Chinese, French, Japanese and Spanish versions scheduled to be available in 2025. The true value of the iPhone 16 will be tested once Apple Intelligence is available, so we are interested to see how popular it will be in the future.