The iPhone 16 Is More Popular Than the iPhone 16 Pro—Here’s Why

Just like how that spectacular Corvette gleaming in the window brings people into the showroom, most of whom leave instead in a sensible Trailblazer, it seems the iPhone 16 Pro gets the glory as Apple’s flagship model. Yet people are opting for the standard iPhone 16 in droves.Consumer Intelligence Research Partners, or CIRP for short, just released the Q1 2025 sales figures for the various models of iPhone.

It’s packing a few surprises, to say the least.(opens in a new window)AppleiPhone 16(opens in a new window)Available at AppleBuy Now(opens in a new window)WHY The iPhone 16 TAKE THE CAKEIt’s not entirely unexpected. Smartphones are a maturing technology, compared to how every annual refresh in the earliest days felt like a seismic leap.



Nobody will ever accuse Apple of making a budget phone, although they did debut the mid-priced iPhone 16e earlier this year.These days, the base-level iPhone 16 has more power than most people will ever need. And starting at $800, it’s expensive enough.

It seems enough people have sided with their wallets rather than the seductive pull of the iPhone 16 Pro, as the former outsold the latter in Q1.“The mix of the original four iPhone 16 models shifted. The iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max together accounted for 38% of iPhone sales in the quarter, down from the 45% share for the similarly positioned iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max one year ago,” say the report.

“The iPhone 16 Plus matched its iPhone 15 Plus predecessor’s share last year. The basic iPhone 16 gained significantly, with 20% of new US iPhone unit sales, compared to only 14% for the iPhone 15 in the same quarter last year.”You can’t go wrong with either one, so if you’d like to join the winning side, the iPhone 16 still has two more quarters to go before the iPhone 17 debuts to steal its thunder.

Or perhaps you’d rather do your part to tilt the playing field back in favor of the iPhone 16 Pro...

(opens in a new window)AppleiPhone 16 Pro(opens in a new window)Available at AppleBuy Now(opens in a new window)The post The iPhone 16 Is More Popular Than the iPhone 16 Pro—Here’s Why appeared first on VICE..