iPhone 17 Is a Big Win for Apple

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Oct 27, 9:15AM EDT

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The iPhone 17 has been a big success in both China and the United States.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) investors have been heartened by the news.

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iPhone 17 Is a Big Win for Apple — © Deagreez / Getty Images

The iPhone 17 was a big success in both China and the United States recently. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL | AAPL Price Prediction) sold more units than the iPhone 16 did in its first 10 days on the market. The jump was 14%. Consumers were mostly drawn to the base version. Many did not move upmarket to the iPhone 17 Pro. The data comes from Counterpoint Research’s weekly smartphone sell-out tracker.

The base model, the researchers said, was viewed as a better value, especially in China. It has almost all of the new iPhone 17 features of the more expensive versions: a better chip, improved display, higher base storage, and a better selfie camera upgrade.

In the U.S., consumers also found deals. The largest carriers offer attractive financing, expecting that customers who sign longer contracts for the iPhone 17 will remain loyal over time. The expensive contracts often drive sales of the iPhone 17 Pro Max.

Apple’s stock recently hit an all-time high. This makes it the second most valuable company in the world after Nvidia. The iPhone sales news helped.

Apple needs China, the world’s largest smartphone market, but does not have it. Sales there totaled $15.3 billion in the most recent quarter. That was only 16% of Apple’s total for the period. And these sales were only up slightly from $14.7 billion the year before.

The news has to have heartened Apple investors. The stock performed poorly early in the year, especially compared to other mega-tech companies. Investors worried that Apple did not have a foothold in the artificial intelligence (AI) market. Its first advanced AI software will not be out until early next year.

Several investors, including Jim Cramer, look at a dollar as a dollar. As long as iPhone sales are strong, the balance of the company will take care of itself. So far, the wind is blowing in that direction.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.