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Strong launch for iPhone XS, XS Max at highest iPhone prices ever.

From a report that landed in my inbox Thursday:

CIRP converts model shares to a US Weighted Average Retail Price (US-WARP), an analogue to Average Selling Price (ASP) that investors can estimate using unit sales and revenues that Apple discloses each quarter. US-WARP and ASP differ because ASP includes international results, and also reflects wholesale discounts and other promotional pricing that Apple may offer to carriers and other retailers. US-WARP generally tracks and anticipates ASP.

In the September 2018 quarter, CIRP calculates US-WARP at $796. This is up from $751 in the June 2018 quarter, and from $705 in the September 2017 quarter.

Cue the fever chart:

Methodology: Based on a survey of 500 US Apple customers that purchased an iPhone, iPad, Mac computer, or Apple Watch in the July-September 2018 period

My take: That’s a small sample in a quarter that was not easy to track, as CIRP acknowledged.

“The iPhone launch quarter is always tricky to understand, and this one is trickier than others” said Josh Lowitz, CIRP Partner and Co-Founder. “This year, Apple launched iPhone XS and XS Max, the two most-expensive models, at the end of the quarter. Last year, Apple launched the more-expensive iPhone X in the following quarter. So, during the quarter ending September 29, 2018, Apple had an unprecedented ten models to track. The iPhone XS and XS Max performed similarly to the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus did in their similar launch quarter last year.”