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after the seven-day pre-sale period ended, apple's iphone 16 series was officially launched globally on september 20, beijing time. however, the response from the terminal market disappointed wall street.

according to a report released on monday by ming-chi kuo, the analyst who "understands apple best" and analyst at tianfeng international securities, the pre-order sales of the iphone 16 series in the first weekend are estimated to be about 37 million units, a year-on-year decrease of about 12.7% compared with the first weekend sales of the iphone 15 series last year. the key is that the sales of the 16 pro are lower than expected. barclays,jpmorgan chaseand bank of america also noted that shipping times could mean demand for iphone pro models is lower than last year.

apple shares fell on monday following kuo's report, and continued to fall on friday despite a temporary boost from the federal reserve's sharp interest rate cut.

meanwhile, apple stores welcomed customers from all over the world on friday. cnbc reporter steve kovach interviewed ceo tim cook outside apple's fifth avenue store in new york and asked if sales this year were better than last year. cook responded:

i don't know yet. it's only the first hour, so we'll see.

regarding the market reaction, ubs believes thatinvestors should not be overly pessimistic about the lower-than-expected sales figures as these figures are obtained by analyzing the waiting time for the iphone 16, which was longer last year in part due to supply chain disruptions.

ubs wrote in a note on friday:

before the release of the iphone 16 series, we believed that the series' lack of killer apps and the embedding of only semi-finished apple smart features could suppress terminal demand.

while we continue to view the features of the iphone and ios as more evolutionary than revolutionary, we caution investors not to overreact to data reflecting initial demand weakness.

ubs said supply chain disruptions last year slightly distorted sales data, causing customers to wait longer for the pro models.last year's waiting time for the iphone 15 pro max was 41 days, while this year's waiting time for the iphone 16 pro max is 26 days.

nonetheless, data for all models and regions about a week after launch broadly supports our view thata super cycle isn’t imminent, as sales in key markets such as the united states have been disappointing relative to last year.