Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

CTOnews.com, Aug. 30, during the outbreak, Apple noticed a significant increase in the number of customers buying iPhone directly from stores, rather than through mobile operators or other retailers.

Now, CIRP has released a new survey called "operators regain dominance as iPhone buyers return to brick-and-mortar stores."

That trend has changed, according to the report, as iPhone purchases in the US have fallen to a new low, with operators accounting for nearly 80 per cent of that.

According to the latest survey, CIRP says the number of US users buying iPhone through direct channels has now fallen to a new low of 17%, with about 11% coming from physical Apple stores and 6% from Apple's official website (CTOnews.com Note: us online shopping is not as convenient as in China), and the biggest winners are naturally mobile operators, accounting for 79% of iPhone sales.

CIRP believes that one of the main factors contributing to this situation is the return of consumers offline. It is said that 65 per cent of total US iPhone sales are in brick-and-mortar stores and the other 35 per cent are online.

Due to this customer trend, coupled with the fact that operators have thousands of stores in the United States, while Apple has fewer than 300 stores, this undoubtedly gives operators a big natural advantage.

In addition, another factor may have to do with the incentives offered by operators over the past few years, and in some cases iPhone is equivalent to giving it away.

Of course, there is a good chance that operators will recoup the cost of these "free" iPhone through package fees within 30 to 36 months, but this also means that customers will go back to the operator to buy the next iPhone when checking the balance of installments and upgrade status.

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