Here’s Why Apple Isn’t Going to Release First Weekend Sales Data for the iPhone 7

Apple, in a departure from typical practice, won’t reveal first-weekend sales for its new iPhone 7. Traditionally, Cupertino would open a device for preorder on a Friday, and then release data on how many devices sold over the weekend on the following Monday, USA Today reported. Apple has been doing this for eight years. And while most agree that the numbers are a gauge of the buzz surrounding a device, Apple says the sales figures are not as relevant today, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The company is “now at a point where we know before taking the first customer preorder that we will sell out of the iPhone 7. These initial sales will be governed by supply, not demand, and we have decided that it is no longer a representative metric for our investors and customers,” Apple said in a statement on Thursday. Instead, Apple will release sales information only during its quarterly earnings release. Which might make sense for the company. Due to contract lengths being so varied, the pre-order window is no longer the only time that people buy new iPhones, Engadget reported. Additionally, the iPhone 7 is being initially released in twice as many countries as the iPhone 6s was available in last year — which, it stands to reason, will increase the demand for the device.

So this move might save Apple some negative media attention. For example, if the iPhone 7 does not outsell the about 10 million devices that the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus sold last year, there would be likely be a slew of negative press. This announcement also comes at a time where iPhone sales have steadily declined— possibly due to users’ unwillingness to upgrade to a new device. On top of that, while the iPhone 7 has some serious improvements, it’s more of an intermediary device, and it lacks any standout or innovative features that have defined previous Apple flagships. Still, according to the Journal, the number of people that use an iPhone has doubled in the past two years.

So it’s likely that the iPhone 7 will sell out — and it’s probably not a stretch to say that Apple is right: this weekend’s sale figures might be more indicative of how many new devices have been manufactured, rather than how many people actually want to buy them.