“The products Apple unveiled at the new Steve Jobs Theater could not have been more appropriate: a cellular watch significantly smaller than competitors with comparable battery life, a new iPhone 8 improved in virtually every dimension, and, of course, the iPhone X, with nearly every new feature dependent on that integration,” Ben Thompson writes for Stratechery.
“Apple clearly decided to not minimize the notch, the black cut-out at the top of the iPhone X that houses an array of sensors and cameras,” Thompson writes. “If anything, the company went out of its way to emphasize it, including playing video such that the notch obscured what was being shown (that is actually an optional view; by default video is letter-boxed such that it avoids the notch).”
MacDailyNews Take: Unapologetically notched.
For the record, as regular readers know, we hate the notch/cutout, having called it an “inelegant kludge.” We also expect we’ll get used it is within days, if not hours or minutes. You’ll be able to have our iPhone X units when you pry them out of our cold, dead hands.
A little iPhone X notch humor:
I think I’ve fixed the notch issue in landscape 🍾 #iphoneX pic.twitter.com/hGytyO3DRV
— Vojta Stavik (@vojtastavik) September 13, 2017
“Moving beyond the notch,” Thompson writes. “I don’t know if Apple can segment the iPhone market; what has been shown is that they can’t, that the iPhone can only be the best, nothing less. That is why I find this launch so fascinating, and will be watching the upcoming quarter’s results so closely: Jobs built Apple to be the best, and the company has succeeded by being exactly that. Does that foreclose the possibility of being really good, and the gains from market segmentation that follow?”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: As we wrote earlier today:
The iPhone X’s $999 starting price will sell many millions of iPhone 8 and 8 Plus units while Apple will sell as many iPhone X units as they can assemble, box, and ship. Apple offers different iPhones, at different price points, for different buyers.
SEE ALSO:
Wall Street analysts say the $999 iPhone X takes Apple’s ‘franchise to a whole new level’ – September 13, 2017
David Pogue hands-on with Apple’s iPhone X: Gorgeous plus-sized screen in a compact body – September 13, 2017
The Verge iPhone X hands-on: Feels like ‘the future of the smartphone’ – September 13, 2017
Apple charts the future of smartphones with new flagship iPhone X – September 13, 2017
Apple unveils iPhone X – September 12, 201