Australian Financial Review: Sales shock ahead for Apple's pricey iPhone 12

WhistleOut Publisher Joe Hanlon, talks to John Davidson from the Financial Review about the apparent drop in interest from people searching for a new handset when renewing their phone plan and the implications that could have for Apple's iPhone 12 launch.

WhistleOut, a website that consumers use to compare mobile phone plans and to pair the plans with new phones, warns that Apple is facing an uphill battle convincing users to buy expensive new iPhones this year.

An analysis of search trends on the site has revealed that customers' willingness to buy a new phone when they renew their phone plan, which normally peaks whenever a premium phone such as an iPhone or a Samsung Galaxy S is launched, has been decidedly flat during the coronavirus.

"In 2020, and particularly since March, we've seen a sharp decrease in the number of product searches on our site that include a smartphone handset. So far this year, the launch of high-profile models, like the Galaxy S20, haven't managed to generate the spikes in interest we expect to see in these launch periods," Joe Hanlon, the publisher at WhistleOut, told The Australian Financial Review.

"Price is almost certainly a factor. We know that people are holding onto phones longer, and we had already seen a softening in smartphone search volumes last year. But it seems that a looming recession is exacerbating this trend, and turning people away from a new phone purchase and towards a cheaper phone plan with no long-term commitments.

"Given that it's likely that Apple will push ahead with premium handsets for its upcoming product launches, we could see this trend hitting Apple where it hurts," he said.