“The most anticipated consumer technology product event in years lived up to the hype, at least according to Wall Street,” Tae Kim reports for CNBC. “Analysts are gushing with optimism over the potential upgrade cycle from Apple’s new high-end $999 iPhone X and iPhone 8 models that were unveiled Tuesday. ”
“‘Apple took the iPhone franchise to a whole new level with the iPhone X, pushing the company deep into the ultra-luxury smartphone market with the highest priced iPhone in the company’s history,’ Drexel Hamilton’s Brian White wrote in a note to clients Wednesday,” Kim reports. “‘We walked away even more encouraged by this new iPhone cycle, Apple’s future in AR [augmented reality] and the company’s ability to distance itself from its competitors.'”
“‘This year’s event marked one of the most highly anticipated product announcements in recent years, and from a product perspective, the company did not disappoint,’ RBC Capital Markets’ Amit Daryanani wrote in a note to clients Tuesday,” Kim reports. “‘We think the new form factor and net new features/capabilities (wireless charging, AR enablement, 3-D sensing) added to the flagship device will drive accelerated device upgrades within AAPL’s install base combined with increased switching activity.'”
“‘While the later timing of the iPhone X is a slight disappointment, we believe it provides runway for the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus to capture upgrades early in the cycle,’ Morgan Stanley’s Katy Huberty wrote in a note to clients Tuesday,” Kim reports. “‘It also sets up for a much stronger than seasonal March quarter, given it will be the first full quarter of iPhone X shipments.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: With each passing year, and especially with iPhone X, it becomes increasingly clear – even to the Android settlers – that the competition has no chance of even remotely keeping up against Apple’s unmatched vertically integrated one-two punch of custom software and custom hardware. The Android to iPhone upgrade train just turned onto a long straightaway, engines stoked, primed to barrel away!
Vertical integration – hardware + software – trumps off-the-shelf conglomerations every single time. See: Macintosh, iPod, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, etc. — MacDailyNews, May 31, 2017
Furthermore, a smartphone is only as good as its ecosystem and the fragmented-by-manufacturer Android “ecosystem” is an unfunny joke. For example, Samsung’s phones, when they don’t explode like their washing machines, are, at best, a collection of off-the-shelf parts, inferior mobile processors, and an off-the-rack operating system best known for fragmentation, insecurity, and privacy-trampling user tracking/data vacuuming from an online banner ad company that masquerades as a search engine. Anyone who regards a South Korean dishwasher maker’s latest iPhone knockoff as “the best phone ever” is a painfully myopic moron.
SEE ALSO:
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, 2017
I love the jaded media and users who feel yesterday’s Apple event and it’s announcements were “tepid.” Perhaps those souls should sit out voicing an opinion until 5 year intervals when enough would have changed to their satisfaction from one point in time to another to maybe seem disruptive. Easy to say “not good enough” when you yourself contribute nothing.
Technology is mostly incremental in nature, not paradigm shifting disruptive. Disruption being far rarer. So get over it and enjoy it for what it is. Buy or not buy. Personally I know I want an iPhone X and a new Watch 3 (currently have the Watch 1 and love it as well as an iPhone 7 Plus.) And as soon as I get a humongous 4K HDR TV a new Apple TV 4K. (I tried buying and using a ROKU Ultra with the mystery battery draining remote that I have to pop out the batteries after every use to avoid premature battery exhaustion after a few days a week. WTF? Taught me a lesson about EVER buying non-Apple devices.)
Actually a thousand dollar iPhone is prison shower ass rape!
Real iPhone enthusiasts are held hostage and have no choice but to upgrade to this ripoff, because the iPhone 6, 6S, 7, 7S, 8, and 8S ARE ALL THE SAME FUCKING PHONE!
Wow…you have anger issues. You are also living in a world where reality is an option, and you did not purchase the upgrade.
Gawd! Get a grip, fella!
To protect against your coming heart attack:
– Stick to or buy a 6
– Don’t upgrade
– Don’t concern yourself with what other people do with their phones.
A whole new level of hubris and failure.
Re MDN Take
“…it becomes increasingly clear – even to the Android settlers – that the competition has no chance of even remotely keeping up against Apple’s unmatched vertically integrated one-two punch of custom software and custom hardware.”
You do know where Apple gets most of it’s stuff, right?
Here is Apple’s Supplier list- many make and sell Android Phones.
Click to access Apple-Supplier-List.pdf
Take a look at Shamscam’s easily defeatable solution for Face I.D. and then Apple’s and get back to us. Plus note Apple is designing it’s own CPU & now GPU. Others are just manufacturing foundry’s and not dishing up great technology for Apple to use. Stuff is made to Apple spec that never occurs to the wannabe’s.
Removing my personal thoughts as much as I can, the title of this article is spot on and poignant. There have always been price and tech differences between iPh models, but nothing like iPh X and the skus for less. This truly segregates the buyer’s market…kind of like the upper end A-Watch skus, but with technology and not just materials/appearance. My $$ is on the iPhX selling with ease and creating a sharp “new” “ultra-luxury smart phone category.
I’ll buy the iPhone X/256 the moment I can.
Right out of the Foundation Trilogy.
The iPhone X is a beta. As soon as word gets out that the Face ID is cludgy and the notch covers full screen movies and games, sales will tank. This is much worse than the maps fiasco, and on par with Samsung’s exploding phones. Will Apple be forced to recall all the barely functioning Face ID phones?
So, if only the very brave will end up purchasing the X, then what about everybody else? Are users going to purchase the same antique design they have been buying for the last several years? If analysts believe this than they are sniffing some primo glue.