“On Wednesday, Apple announced its new iPhones, curiously giving the cheaper and more colorful iPhone XR a ship date of over a month after the more luxe iPhone XS and XS Max models become available next Friday,” Shannon Liao reports for The Verge. “Why didn’t Apple release all three phones at once?”
“Reports that the iPhone XR, which starts at $749 and features a so-called Liquid Retina LCD display, was facing supply issues floated around over this past summer. In July, Japanese blog Macotakara reported that supplier Japan Display had low yields in manufacturing the LCD panels,” Liao reports. “Ryan Reith, IDC’s vice president of research on mobile devices, told The Verge in a phone interview that more specifically, it likely wasn’t a hardware issue. ‘Everything we’ve been hearing, it’s been an issue on the software side,’ he said, ‘There’s a lot of software involved with the LCD screen, as it’s the first [LCD display] with a notch and full screen.'”
“The delay might cost Apple some sales on its iPhone XR model, as people might end up buying the XS Max while Apple struggles with its LCD supply issues,” Liao reports. “‘I think it’s a real possibility,’ said Reith, ‘Consumers can’t tell the difference. If they see two phones, and one of them is significantly bigger, people will just go to that.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Note: Apple’s mass market iPhone XR will be available for pre-order on October 19th and available o nOctober 26th.
“‘Consumers can’t tell the difference if they see two phones, and one of them is significantly bigger, people will just go to that.”
when they look at the price they can tell the difference.
Why anyone needs a iPhone bigger than X is just unreal to me…if you want to use a bigger screen, grab an iPad…
I need my phone to fit in my front pants pocket…I really hope they continue to make the X size phone for years to come as my pocket is maxed out!
The big phone problem will be solved by foldable devices. Soon enough we’ll have more compact phones and tablets that can unfold into screens twice their size.
Why the hell some people bother so much about others choices… to the point alternative needs appear to them “unreal”!
Why I never ever bothered about phone sizes others opt for!?
“if you want to use a bigger screen, grab an iPad”
Ummm, or an iPhone XS Max?
Reading the article, it’s just based on rumours and speculations by 3rd parties on “possible” cause of delayed release. Yes, there was an early rumour of screen yield issue etc. But it is hard to believe that Apple did not fix this sort of things, if existed, by production ramp up, particularly if it was software related as IDC “speculates”.
It’s all about something called “timed release”.
The truth is, as the Verge reports, ““The delay might cost Apple some sales on its iPhone XR model, as people might end up buying the XS Max while Apple struggles with its LCD supply issues,”
It does not cost Apple anything. This was all carefully calculated and planned. It only increases their profit.
You beat me to it by 13 minutes and thinking exactly the same right off.
“It does not cost Apple anything. This was all carefully calculated and planned. It only increases their profit.”
Yes exactly right, careful calculation by Apple to maximize profits from the flagship phones upfront for the next month.
Production issues have been cited many times before on other product delays. When you have the supply chain genius CEO for the world’s largest company, getting harder to believe the issues are not worked out on schedule…
Interesting Apple decided to release the two high end phones first and delay the XR for a month. I can’t say that is helpful to those in line who want the new model at a lower price projected to be a best seller.
Hmmm, make the big money first from feverish fans that can’t wait and make the real money a month from now.
All speculation of course and we shall see if the top seller brings in the most income …
I hate the name of my new Xs Max I ordered today for mere 1648 Euros. But I will love the device, so Apple did everything right. Still, the creator of that name should be fired.
Damn, I forgot one Euro. It was 1649!
The Microsoft IT guys at work are already making fun of the name — Maxi-Pads. Agree, worst naming convention possibly in the history of products.
But don’t worry, Apple listens and responds to their customers. Unlike other big companies they are not arrogant and tone-deaf … /s
Or, is this all smoke and mirrors and Apple is learning from the car industry (since they have a lot of car folks now in their ranks, they’ve picked up on sales ideas from them…)
Always launch the highest-end cars first! Most margin, enthusiasts, desire, only have those products available, then bring out the lower end less margin configurations.
This is two-years in a row now Apple has made this play, and I’m guessing it’s not some manufacturing issue as much as it is an intentional staggered delay.
Apple might in fact mention this at some point during or after next year’s iPhone launch. Saying something to the effect that if we are going to get some models out the door first, and execute well, we are going to launch the newest technologies we have and bring them to the table to delight our customers. We will launch everything as quickly as possible of course, but staggering the launch has actually worked really well and allowed for all the products to be available and not run out, once they are launched.
All talk for high-margin first, lower margin stuff later. ; )
If we learned anything from the “APPLE WAITED UNTIL THE LAST MINUTE TO REMOVE TOUCHID” stories, it’s thay their supply chain is locked down way more than these analysts can see into. And we also know these analysts have never WORKED in the industry they cover because FaceID was well finalized and being mass produced when they were still going on about it being a last minute decision that still needed to be made.
If they’d been a part of ANY industry that builds things (and were paying a little attention) they would have understood how nonsensical making a decision like that in June would be.
If anything, it’s MORE likely that the distribution channels simply can’t handle the load (all those phones have to be stored somewhere near the destination before being shipped) and when you consider that they will sell in ONE DAY more than the entire bottom half of the smartphone market combined, it makes sense from the position of UPS, and the Malls the stores are associated with.
Same as last year. The iPhone X came out before the iPhone 8s. Totally to drive sales of the higher-margin device to the people who couldn’t wait for a new phone – whether they needed it or not.
If they had gone the other direction – cheaper phone first, they’d make less profit overall.