Less people bought an iPhone 7 than 6S, report suggests

PanARMENIAN.Net - It seems that the iPhone 7 might not be as popular as last year's 6S models. While Apple have chosen not to release launch sales figures for the new iPhones, German market research firm GfK have claimed that sales of the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus were down 25% year-on-year compared to the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus, Digital Spy reports.

Those models saw Apple achieve record-breaking sales, with combined sales of 13 million units over the first weekend of release, up on the 10m units sold for the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus in 2014.

The unverified report is said to be based on data in Europe and Asia, and has led to Apple shares dropping after the news broke. It contrasts with the positive reports from US retailers that stated first-day sales were better than expected.

"Numbers on sales or market shares are confidentially provided to our clients and shall not be quoted or released to the public," GfK said in a statement (via Bloomberg). "We did not publish these figures for external release."

Alongside the reported figures, Taiwan-based electronics newsletter Digitimes reports that Apple has told its chip partners that iPhone 7 chip orders would fall around 20 per cent in the first quarter of 2017.

Apple previously explained their reasons for not releasing launch figures, stating that the figures are "no longer a representative metric for our investors and customers".

Last week, it was revealed just how much it costs to make the iPhone 7, while it has been rumoured that Apple is apparently going to ditch the home button for the iPhone 8, following the removal of the headphone port in the current model.