The iPhone X apparently isn’t doing as well as Apple had hoped it would, with its high cost set to lead to a drop in demand and shipments following the holiday season. A new DigiTimes report now claims that the company may revise its iPhone prices in early 2018.
This is a pretty unlikely as far as rumors go since Apple rarely makes its products cheaper so soon after its release. The most prominent example of this occurred with the original iPhone which was initially launched in June 2007 at $599, but later dropped to $399 in September. Then-CEO Steve Jobs gave away a $100 store credit to early buyers to make up for this.
Apple probably won’t want a similar fiasco on its hands with the $999 iPhone X. The article notably doesn’t specify which iPhone models are getting more affordable, so it’s possible others like the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus will burn a slightly smaller hole in a person’s bank balance as well.
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As for why this cut might occur in the first place, the iPhone X is supposedly performing badly in markets like Singapore, the US, and Taiwan. This has lead to shipments falling to just 30-35 million units in Q4 of 2017 and staying flat or dropping in Q1 of 2018. Slashing rates may just reverse this prediction.
Supply chain sources assert that the iPhone X’s weak performance has directly lead to the development of 3 new iPhones for 2018 with 3D sensing abilities across the board and 2 out 3 carrying OLED displays. The claim is a bit questionable since this has been rumored for a couple of months now.
The report further insinuates that Apple is working on a prototype iPhone which can support pre-5G features. This may have a grain of truth to it since there have been other articles suggesting the same.