Two weeks ago, Apple hosted its "Awe dropping." event and introduced the new iPhone Air to replace the Plus model in the line-up. As I considered the end of Plus, the introduction of the Air, and my intimate knowledge of our inventory levels, I felt like there was something that I could add to the conversation. As an iPhone case start-up, I've seen this coming. While it's well-documented that the iPhone Plus model is the worst selling of the recent series' offerings, I can also confirm that by glancing over my shoulder at our case inventory. If you're nerdy about numbers and would like to see what it has meant for us, then this is the post for you!
iPhone Plus Cases versus Everything Else
A few notes about the data. Although there were different numbers of inventory ordered between different models and available for a different number of years, I have normalized all numbers, so we have an apples-to-apples comparison of percentages. Additionally, there is no discount factor put on any of these numbers to account for time, even though we have been selling the 14's and 15's much longer than the 16's. We imagine that in a year the 16 percentages will look closer to what the 14/15's look like now. And we hope the 14's and 15's completely sell out for all models by that time.
So, let's get into some detail about how case sales went and what that means for iPhone Plus.
iPhone 14 and 15 cases
- We launched OpenCase on Kickstarter in January 2024 and offered cases for all models of the iPhone 14 series and 15 series. We ordered identical inventory for each series and have not reordered any models.
- Notably, at the time of our Kickstarter, 14's had been on the market for over a year at that point, but 15's had only been around for 4 months. Sales for 14's were slower, but as people upgraded to 15, we sold more iPhone cases.
iPhone 16 cases
- With a longer runaway to sell cases and more growth as a company, we invested in more inventory for the iPhone 16 series, including adding a second color (light grey) for the Pro and Pro Max. Since the launch, we have reordered the Pro Max in black, because we did sell out of that color relatively quickly. (If you're interested in learning more about why we went back to selling only black cases for 17, check this out)
Our Customer
Again, we launched on Kickstarter, which has a storied past of launching creative companies with an emphasis on innovative design, technology, games, media and more. Think.. PopSocket, Exploding Kittens, Studio Neat, and others. With this in mind, our early customers and current customers continuing to this day, tend to be folks interested in bleeding edge technology, supporting small business, and/or solving everyday problems with functional design. Whether we find them or they find us, our customers buying cases may skew less towards the iPhone Plus and more towards the Pro and Pro Max models more in general (and maybe the Air in the near future? But that's a topic for another article!).
Rest in Power, iPhone Plus
Given all that, it is still very easy to see from the charts that the iPhone Plus cases have been our least popular, regardless of generation. It's so pronounced that my wife and I hugely celebrate whenever a iPhone Plus case is sold. There's actual cheering! We know there's a small contingency of folks that went with that model, and we really appreciate that they've selected us for their phone.
Which model will steadfast Plus users move towards? What will happen to the Air? How will this impact case sales? I'm interested to find out. And I hope you enjoyed getting to see this from our side.