T-Mobile CEO says iPhone 16 is selling more than last year’s model

In a Wednesday interview with CNBC’s Jim Cramer, T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert said his company was seeing more sales of the iPhone 16 than last year’s series of the smartphones.

“The first week was better than last year,” Sievert said. “Not only good, but better than last year, and people are buying Pros, they’re buying Maxs, so they’re buying up the food chain, and they’re buying at a greater rate than last year.”

Apple is set to release the iPhone16 in stores on Friday, widely touted for its new artificial intelligence capabilities. However, the AI features won’t be present for the phones’ first launch, with a beta version of the program set to come out next month. Some analysts predicted that there’s less demand for the product than expected — perhaps somewhat due to the AI feature delay — which caused Apple shares to slide.

But according to Sievert, the iPhone16 is in demand, although the delay may lengthen the buying cycle. He said it may take longer for customers to share their experience with the new product “by word of mouth” because of the features’ postponement.

Sievert also reviewed announcements the company made at a conference it held on Wednesday. T-Mobile increased its customer target to 12 million over the next several years, and Sievert said it figured out how to get “even more capacity” out of its 5G network. Siebert also said T-Mobile “put a stake in the ground” on the AI front, as the company shared it would partner with Nvidia, Nokia and Ericcson to “design and drive the future of mobile networks with AI at the center.”

“It’s going to take a few years,” Sievert said. “We’re only half way in to this 5G revolution, it’s been around five or six years, but we’re now turning the page and starting to architect with our partners what future networks will look like to make sure everybody has a better signal in the future.”

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Disclaimer The CNBC Investing Club Charitable Trust holds shares of Apple and Nvidia.