About a third of Apple’s 900 million active iPhones are likely to be upgraded in the next 12 to 18 months, according to Wedbush Securities. The big question is whether Apple customers buy the iPhone 11 or wait for a 5G device in 2020…
Expectations for Apple’s new iPhones are pretty low. It’s a gap year for smartphones and 5G is a big reason why… So is anyone going to buy the new iPhones? Sure. The actual numbers, however, remain a mystery.
MacDailyNews Take: Yes, as we wrote last month, “this year is a placeholder year for iPhone ahead of the 5G avalanche. We’re most interested in how Apple’s marketing apparatus will attempt to sell iPhones (think: Camera, Camera, Camera!) in a year where many of us with iPhone X/XS/XS Max units (and even older Home-button based iPhones) may simply be on a holding pattern until iPhone 5G.”
Of course, iPhone could have [no new features] and still sell 40+ million units every 90 days. And, also of course, Apple will have a new A13 that’s more efficient along with iOS 13 which will also improve efficiency, so better battery life is likely in the offing. New cameras, especially on the back, along with new features for Apple’s Camera app are a given and will be the major focus for selling these pre-5G placeholder iPhones to customers through fall 2020 when The Mother of All iPhone Upgrade Cycles™ finally hits! — MacDailyNews, August 18, 2019
WATCH Series 5 will be a monster hit.
I already upgraded from Watch 1 to Watch 4 and still love it but I’ve changed my mind about waiting another year holding on to my iPhoneX and will upgrade to iPhone 11 mostly for the better camera. 5g is going to take years to implement as well as 4g has anyway and has technical reception limitations over 4g.
Do typical users actually care about “5G” and understand how it’ll “improve their lives” over 4G? 4G is already pretty good, and they’re probably using a WiFi connection as much as possible to save on data usage anyways…
But I think they’ll care more about that third back camera and more processing power, because those are visible and functional improvements, not just “better pipes” when current bandwidth is fine for what most of them currently do with iPhones.
AFTER they have 5G, they won’t want a 4G device. But right now, a new iPhone model is a new iPhone model. I doubt demand will be impacted because they’re “waiting for 5G.”
Right now I could care less about 5G, but in 2yrs when it’s probably much more fully implemented all over the US I think I’ll probably care. I’m on an 8+ iPhone and will probably upgrade not so much for the 3rd camera(although that will probably be a bonus) but so I can have a full screen iPhone and Face ID. I just got the iPad Pro and the Face ID is pretty darn good.
LTE took several years to have widespread coverage. Apple did not jump on that bandwagon right away.
The other thing to consider is that the initial radios may not be fully optimized and be a greater drain on the battery whilst not providing much improvement on data performance.
I would rather wait for Apple to get 5G right than have a half assed product that compromises other capabilities.
I don’t want to wait anymore. I’ve just passed my iPhone 7s to my girlfriend and I am temporarily using a iPhone 8 (small) that a sibling passed to me in preparation for the launch next week. I was going to get an X but didn’t like the size that year, then when the XS Max came out I though I’d jump but didn’t; it still was pricy for the maxed out model – pun intended. I miss the dual camera lenses from my iPhone 7s and the 8 is so tiny to see and use. I’m ready for the big screen and triple lens setup. I’m not it a huge rush for 5G but I can see where mobile warriors may like it.