Last year Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP) released released its analysis of iPhone model sales in the December 2025 quarter.
The next day Apple announced quarterly results that exceeded everyone’s expectations and were driven by improved iPhone sales and gross margins. To understand how that happened, this week CIRP looked at one of the best metrics we have to understand iPhone sales, US-WARP – the weighted average retail price of new iPhones sold in the quarter in the US. This provides direct insight into Apple’s performance in its most important business segment.
Note that Apple stopped releasing average selling price (ASP) for iPhones in 2018. Fortunately, CIRP had calculated the Weighted Average Retail Price of iPhones sold in the US (US-WARP) for more than five years at that time. The numbers moved similarly, though ASP was a global number and US-WARP is US only and does not take into account wholesale discounts that Apple may offer to different retailers.
In September 2025 Apple introduced the four new iPhone 17 models, including updates for the base, Pro, and Pro Max models, and the new iPhone 17 Air, replacing the Plus in the lineup. The December 2025 quarter reflects the first full quarter of sales for those models. US-WARP is driven by model mix – the percentage of unit sales for each phone – the price of each model, and storage upgrades, which increase purchase prices by US$100 or more.
The new iPhone 17 models included some notable changes over the iPhone 16 lineup:
° The standard iPhone 17 base storage was increased with no accompanying price increase.
° The iPhone 17 Pro base storage increased along with a $100 increase in base price to $1,099.
° The iPhone 17 Pro Max didn’t have an increase in base storage, but had a $100 price increase.
° The new iPhone 17 Air is priced $100 more than the Plus model that it replaced.
Price increases help lift US-WARP, while base storage increases can moderate US-WARP as they reduce pressure for spending on upgraded storage.
In the December 2025 quarter, US-WARP was $1,077, the highest December quarter seen since CIRP started its survey of Apple customers. This is almost level with the September 2025 quarter and up significantly from $953 in the December 2024 quarter
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Article provided with permission from AppleWorld.Today
