We’re back with a follow up to our article about the rather damp launch of the iPhone 16e, and happily for Tim Cook the story is completely different this time around. It may not be entirely fair to compare the half-hearted launch of an unwanted economy class variant to a major hardware and design update across a suite of phones but… let’s just look at the numbers anyway.
India is still the land where yesterday’s phone remains the brightest star on launch day
We still see the strong pattern of exploding growth for the last model just as a new model is launched. Thanks to aggressive price promotions on older stock, the launch of the iPhone 17 put booster rockets on the 16-series, finally pushing it above its predecessor in percentage share of iOS devices on Zedge.
It feels as if the entire iPhone 16 offering was a bit of a weak seller in general – the iPhone 15 devices managed to depose the 14-series phones much sooner, and more decisively, back in 2023.
Don’t miss the little green line at the bottom of that chart above – that was the iPhone 16e launching earlier in 2025, and you can see how much enthusiasm that was met with in the Indian market – barely a blip.
Comparing Apples with Apples in the USA and India
To make a sensible comparison of enthusiasm at launch, we look at the relative “launch velocity” of new phones penetrating our user base. Seeing how that played out in 2025 for the iPhone 16e rather begs the question: who was this phone for?
One would think a “budget” phone from one of the world’s most premium brands would be aimed squarely at a market such as India, which certainly responds to affordability when older models go on sale, but we see a far stronger response in the USA for the iPhone 16e. Barely half a percent of our iOS user base made it on to the 16e in India.
ee
Ouch.
Let’s turn our gaze to the iPhone 17 launch
Seventeen is indeed larger than Sixteen
Looking at launch day velocity across the models they share (bear in mind that there was no iPhone 17 Plus, and the Air is an entirely new variant), the iPhone 17 family has its predecessor absolutely licked in every way.
These are profoundly different results since the last major launch two years ago. It’s also fairly clear that the Pro Max variant is “an American thing,” battling to get share in India.
It looks as if our Indian users went all in on the base model, which makes a lot of sense – the iPhone 17 base model was highly praised for having no tough compromises relative to the Pro Max, and this market reads price tags closely.
The iPhone 17 series looks to be a huge commercial success compared to the last major release.
<Bonus visual. It’s a pretty chart.>