A buyer holds up the brand new orange-colored iPhone 17 Professional Max smartphone inside an Apple retail retailer in Chongqing, China, on September 19, 2025.
Cheng Xin | Getty Photos Information | Getty Photos
The iPhone 17 hit retailer cabinets worldwide on Friday, drawing traces from Beijing to London.
However past the launch buzz, Apple is underneath stress to show itself, grappling with questions over its synthetic intelligence plans, in addition to rising competitors.
Merchandise on show for the primary time embody the iPhone 17 Professional, iPhone 17 Professional Max, and iPhone Air, in addition to new Apple Watch and AirPods fashions.
Whereas they had been accessible for preorders within the U.S. from Sept. 12, the worldwide launch holds specific significance as Apple takes on rising competitors in abroad markets.
China competitors
A kind of markets is China, the place prospects waited for hours — and even in a single day — to get their fingers on the brand new iPhone
First in line on the Apple flagship Retailer in Sanlitun, Beijing, this morning, was Liu — he didn’t want to be recognized by his full title — who informed CNBC that he had been queuing since 11 p.m. native time Thursday for his probability to select up the iPhone 17 Professional Max.
He mentioned he was excited concerning the smartphone’s new coloration and exterior design, which Apple says has improved the telephone’s warmth dissipation.
Notably, Liu additionally mentioned he has modified to Apple from Huawei lately, saying he most well-liked the iPhone for every day use and leisure.
One other particular person, who wished to be recognized solely by his surname, Yang — an erstwhile Xiaomi consumer — mentioned he had been ready to get his fingers on the most recent iPhone, preferring its working system.
Each Liu and Yang count on many Chinese language residents to purchase their first iPhone this 12 months because of the new options, together with bigger inside storage.
If that development had been to pan out, it might be welcome information for Apple, which has misplaced market share in China to gamers corresponding to Huawei and Xiaomi.
After years of management within the area, the iPhone-maker now solely holds 10% of the Chinese language smartphone market, trailing native gamers like Oppo, Huawei, Xiaomi and others, in accordance with information from Omdia.
Up to now, the indicators are constructive for the iPhone 17 sequence in China. Final Friday, JD.com — one among China’s largest ecommerce platforms — noticed the primary minute of iPhone 17 sequence preorders surpass the first-day preorder quantity of final 12 months’s iPhone 16 sequence, the corporate reported.
At 10 a.m. native time on Friday, JD.com mentioned that iPhone 7 trade-in gross sales had been 4 instances greater than the identical interval final 12 months.
Different markets
Within the a lot smaller however prosperous market of Singapore, the redesigned iPhone 17s had been additionally met with fervor, with lengthy traces forming exterior Apple retailers throughout the town.
Iman Isa and Daniel Muhamed Nuv, two younger professionals in Singapore, had each queued for hours at Apple’s outlet within the metropolis’s iconic Marina Bay mall to purchase iPhone 17 Professionals, which they mentioned had been their first new telephones in years.
Citing the recent design, longer battery life and improved digicam, they mentioned the brand new telephones supply sufficient to maintain them loyal to the Apple ecosystem.
Strains had been even longer at an outlet in Singapore’s Orchard, the city-state’s main procuring middle, with a separate queue for individuals who had preordered.
Primarily based on preorder instances and client suggestions, the preliminary world demand for the iPhone 17 sequence seems largely constructive, mentioned Le Xuan Chiew, a analysis supervisor at Omdia.
The iPhone 17 base mannequin specifically has outperformed expectations, because the pricing at launch remained unchanged from its predecessor regardless of upgrades in reminiscence storage, Chiew mentioned.
In Singapore, prospects arriving at Apple retailers had additionally been trying to nab a number of the firm’s new AirPods Professional 3, citing the product’s dwell translation function as a significant promoting level.
Apple intelligence
A profitable iPhone 17 launch might assist reassure Apple traders after a considerably underwhelming rollout of its synthetic intelligence options, which started late final 12 months.
Chatting with CNBC’s “Squawk Field Europe” final week, Ben Wooden, chief analyst at CCS Perception, lauded Apple’s newest product launches however mentioned the corporate now wanted to ship on synthetic intelligence.
“There isn’t any query that Apple must ship on AI,” he mentioned, noting that the corporate had “dropped the ball” final 12 months by making massive guarantees that did not materialize.
“Apple has to catch up [in AI], however proper now, I believe they have sufficient runway to have the ability to cope within the intervening interval.”
– CNBC’s Eunice Yoon contributed to this report