NEWS: Apple could scrap iPhone X this year after poor sales of device

iOS
#21

Apple’s quarterly results don’t specify which iPhone is making how much money, not does the ‘aggregated group profit’ (which is big news) pushing earlier stories off the front page mean it’s incorrect.

I hypothesize a situation where the iPhone 8 and 8+ (and the still selling earlier versions) which have R&D costs that are mostly, or completely for the earlier versions amortized unlike the X which is largely new technology and which accordingly will have much higher R&D cost apportioned to each sale (1)

A new mass market phone making use of (at least part of) the technology and style pioneered by the X (the 9 series) would almost certainly make Apple more money than the X does (2)

(1) yes this is bean counter speak, but that doesn’t invalidate the logic in and off itself.

(2) I’m not saying that the X isn’t profitable, just that profit could be increased further with a different product (which is all a bean counter need to justify replacement of a product).

#22

Well, that has more to do with the number of models Apple is now selling versus the article, which was, as I’ve already stated, click-bait based on a comments from an analyst. Since they obviously made a crapload of them, maybe even enough that they could stop production earlier than necessary before moving onto the next and continue to sell them well into the future as they have been the previous models. There is plenty of activation data online showing the spread of models.

But I mean… seriously? They may as well just write “iPhone X production could stop by the time the superseding model is ready!”

#23

You have a future as a media critic :slight_smile:

#24

Price, price, price. That’s the issue. It’s clearly a great device, as I saw the $1600 and went, “Nope” and bought the 8 and that’s a fabulous phone, and the X is better, so it must be great.

The OLED and face rec. jeanies are out of the bottle, and will never go back in. They are the future and will be part of future versions, but they overreached on price and lost millions of X sales.

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#25

I suspect those “lost” sales are ones they could not have actually fulfilled given the nature of some of the technology in the X. The screen being the most obvious component that they simply can’t get in enough quantity to put it into one of the mainstream top line models. This will change of course - Apple are pouring large sums into LG to allow them to invest in their OLED manufacturing - but these things take time.

The view held by Gruber and others, which makes sense, is the Apple really needs a niche phone to put cutting edge tech into:

It’s not enough for Apple to create a phone that can be sold for $649/749/849 with 35 percent profit margins. They have to create a phone that can be sold at those prices, with those margins, and which can be manufactured at scale. And for Apple that scale is massive: anything less than 60–70 million in the quarter in which it goes on sale is a failure — possibly a catastrophic failure.

I think it would have been worse for Apple had they sold it cheaper. People would still be waiting for phones ordered on launch day. Imagine how shitty everyone would be about that.

I’d say it’s quite likely that the X will be discontinued this year rather than moved into 2nd place and that that’s exactly what was always gong to happen. Some of its features will appear on the 9 and the X2 will be a further iteration of cutting edge tech.

Yeah, pretty sure these numties are going to have to wait a little longer for their chance at a Pulitzer.