Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone 17 sales surged in October, generating much stronger revenue than the iPhone 16 at this time last year, according to Bernstein Société Générale Group.
“Overall, iPhone 17 series delivered a 20% increase in unit sales over the iPhone 16 series based on combined sales in September and October,” said Bernstein analysts, led by Mark Newman, in an investor report. “The base model of iPhone 17 contributed the largest share of this growth, up 27%, while the Pro and Pro Max models also demonstrated strong performance, both up 20%. iPhone Air sales have been underwhelming, however, trailing behind iPhone 15 Plus. Sales of iPhone Air were hurt due to lack of availability in China until late October.”
The spike in sales led to Apple achieving a 24.2% market share in October, which was its highest on record. It also led to revenue gains of 14% year over year and 40% month over month.
China proved to be Apple’s fastest-growing market in October as units sold increased by 38%. iPhone sales in the Americas were also stout, leading to a year-over-year revenue gain of 14.5%.
The strong iPhone 17 demand is a positive sign for companies in Apple’s supply chain, such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM) and Luxshare. Despite the recent spike in memory prices, Bernstein does not expect it to affect Apple at this point, even though the iPhone 17 has about 25% more dynamic random access memory than the iPhone 16. It is also positive for Qualcomm (QCOM) in the short term, but Bernstein expects Apple to move fully away from the company over the next few years.