Apple looks set to ship more iPhones this year than it ever has before. New predictions from research company IDC show the tech giant doing well, mostly because people really want its newest phones. The company’s also making a comeback in China, which matters a lot for its business.
IDC forecasts Apple will ship 247.4 million iPhones in 2025, up 6% from last year and topping its previous record of 236 million units set in 2021 with the iPhone 13.
What’s driving this? According to Nabila Popal, senior research director at IDC, it’s “thanks to the phenomenal success of its latest iPhone 17 series.” She pointed out that in China, “massive demand for iPhone 17 has significantly accelerated Apple’s performance.”
Shipments refer to how many devices manufacturers send to their selling partners, think online retailers and physical stores. These numbers don’t tell you exactly how many phones got sold, but they show what kind of demand a company’s expecting.
Now IDC says Apple’s shipments in China will jump 17% in the last three months of 2025 compared to last year. That’s big enough that the research firm changed its forecast for China’s entire smartphone market. They now expect 3% growth for the year instead of the 1% decline they’d predicted before.
Can Apple overtake Samsung?
IDC isn’t alone in seeing good things ahead for Apple. As reported by Cryptopolitan last week, another research company called Counterpoint Research said Apple would ship more smartphones than Samsung in 2025. That hasn’t happened in 14 years.
But there might be bumps coming. Apple could delay the basic version of its next phone, the iPhone 18, until 2027. That would mess with the company’s usual routine of launching all its new models every fall. IDC thinks this delay might cause shipments to drop 4.2% next year.
Apple reported its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings in October, and the numbers beat what analysts expected. The company also gave a strong outlook for its December quarter.
CEO Tim Cook told CNBC’s Steve Kovach that revenue should rise at least 10%. “We expect total company revenue to grow by 10 to 12% year over year, we expect iPhone revenue to grow double digits, year over year, and we expect that that would make the December quarter the best ever in the history of the company,” Cook said.
Analysts surveyed by LSEG had predicted Apple would hit $132.31 billion in December quarter sales and earnings of $2.53 per share. Apple’s guidance goes past those numbers. If revenue grows 11% over last year’s December quarter, the period would bring in $137.97 billion.
Cook said the company feels good about these projections because customers have responded so well to the iPhone 17 devices. He called the reception “off the chart.” “We look at the results to date, the reception of the consumer on the very strong iPhone lineup,” Cook said. “We’re looking at traffic in our stores, which is up significantly year on year. We see enthusiasm around the world.”
Net income hit $27.46 billion during the quarter. That compares to $14.29 billion in the same period last year, though that earlier figure was lower because of a one-time tax charge.
For Apple’s fiscal 2025, total revenue came to $416 billion. That’s a 6% increase over 2024. Sales in the September quarter went up 8% from the year before.
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