Is the iPhone 6 Plus not the smash hit we thought it was?

The instant sell-outs and rapidly lengthening delivery estimates of the iPhone 6 Plushave led many observers to believe that the most jumbo version of iPhone is capturing a big chunk of the new iPhone sales in North America. But new statisticsfrom Chitika indicate that people may have been jumping the gun because it’s possible that the low early production volumes of iPhone 6 Plus are the reason for its relative scarcity compared to the smaller iPhone 6.

According to Chitika, three days after the launch of the new models, the iPhone 6 made up 1.6% of the internet traffic volume generated by all iPhones and the iPhone 6 Plus was responsible of just 0.2% of Internet traffic. This means that the iPhone 6 generated a whopping eight times more web traffic than its massive sibling.

Could it be that the iPhone 6 Plus is just too big for mainstream iPhone fans and that it will become a relatively small niche product and that the cheaper iPhone 6 is dominating shipments?

There has been a lot of debate over what the success of Samsung’s phablets means for Apple. Have consumers who are truly in love with the phablet size already migrated to Android over the past two years, leaving the iOS ecosystem as a place for smaller phones only?

It is possible that early production bottlenecks are distorting the numbers, of course. Overall, the market penetration of new iPhones after three days is surprisingly small. A year ago, the iPhone 5 had already soared to hog 2.7% of all iPhone web traffic on day three. This time around, iPhone 6 stands at 1.6% and iPhone 6+ at 0.2% and the combined share is substantially below the level that the iPhone 5 conquered.