Apple’s Lower Prices, Users’ Aging Handsets Drive iPhone Demand

  • Company tells suppliers to target high end of production plan
  • Cheaper handset arrives as record 2015 models turn 4 years old

Apple Inc. iPhone 11

Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
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Apple Inc. is seeing higher iPhone demand than it expected, thanks to two forces consumers find hard to resist: falling prices and the inevitable aging of older models.

Since missing holiday sales targets last year, the company has cut some prices and offered more attractive trade-in deals. The iPhone 11 went on sale Sept. 20 at $699 -- $50 below the previous iPhone XR, for a more capable device.