Dubai: The iPhone 15’s Pro range easily picked up a sizeable share of the advance bookings in the UAE, with sales of Apple’s latest smartphone starting today (September 22).
“In fact, pre-launch interest and bookings for the 15 has come in higher than that for the iPhone 14,” said Rajat Asthana, Chief Operating Officer at Eros Group. “This is exactly what UAE tech retailers had been hoping for, to drive Q4 sales and close 2023 successfully.
“One factor fuelling this is, when you compare to prices elsewhere, the UAE’s one of the lowest. We are getting a lot of demand because of that. For instance, there is a Rs38,000 difference in Iphone 15 Pro prices in India and that's significant."
Bookings
Bookings for the iPhone 15 opened last week, and with the promise of instant delivery with the UAE being among the first wave of global launch markets. Multiple retailers confirm the launch has been met with much higher immediate demand than had been expected.
The iPhone price range will extend from Dh3,399 to Dh6,799. The top-of-the-line Pro series gets to have titanium, while all models have switched to the USB-C ports from Apple’s proprietary Lightning cable.
“The bookings show more than the first wave of Apple’s in-built fan base wanting to have the latest phone,” said a retailer. “We are seeing many who had been iPhone 13 or older users who think the 15 is a good one to upgrade to.
“There are a lot more of these users waiting in the wings, and that’s who will drive demand during the final weeks of 2023.”
Be ready with enough iPhone 15 stocks
This time, retailers and traders hope to have enough stocks to feed that demand. The iPhone 14 had its supply issues through most of the final quarter of 2022, which meant that sales actually got going in the UAE and Gulf only from January 2023 onwards.
“Even for the iPhone 15, there will only be a limited number of stocks available,” said a retailer. “We are hopeful there won’t be any of the disruptions that the 14 saw.”
Apple should have that issue covered, extending its smartphone manufacturing base to India as well. Some of the stocks that will go on sale in the UAE will be shipped in from the India hub along with those traditionally brought in from China.
