14 DAY TRIAL // Apple will take the wraps off the company’s new-generation iPhone next week, and one of the eagerly-anticipated models is the more affordable version.
Based on rumors that have made the rounds lately, Apple’s 2018 iPhone lineup will include a successor to the iPhone X (presumably called iPhone Xs), a Plus-sized version that may launch as iPhone Xs, and a 6.1-inch model specifically created to be more affordable.
Speculation about a cheaper iPhone have been swirling around the web for many years already, mostly because Apple’s flagship product has always been a premium product.
With every generation, the iPhone got more and more expensive, and every time, there were analysts predicting an end of its success, forecasting that people wouldn’t spend that much on an iPhone.
Last year when the Cupertino-based tech giant launched the iPhone X, Apple set a new record in terms of how expensive its phone gets. Starting at $999 for the base model, iPhone X was the first model breaking the $1,000 milestone and it was, without a doubt, too expensive for many.
But despite all the rumors and analyst projections estimating terrible iPhone X market performance, Apple revealed record sales, proving that regardless the price, the iPhone can sell well.
However, the message that everyone highlighted during all this time was that iPhone X was too expensive. Not too expensive to sell in record numbers, but too expensive to generate a super-cycle.
So what Apple did was start work on a more affordable configuration for the 2018 generation. Yet, it’s essential for everyone to know that what Apple was building was actually a lower-cost iPhone and not a low-cost iPhone. See the difference?
Apple just wanted to build a new base iPhone that’s only a bit more affordable than its premium siblings, so people who don’t want to spend $1,000 on a new model can still upgrade to the latest-generation hardware and software by going for this particular model. And not go to Android, that is.
So when news broke in early September that this cheaper iPhone would actually be pretty expensive, everyone was shocked. Pretty much because what Apple seems to do is reinvent the notion of affordable smartphones.
If these latest reports are true, this 6.1-inch LCD iPhone could start from $699 or even from $799. That’s definitely way too much for a phone that doesn’t have the best of the best, right? Right.
But that’s not how Apple sees the whole thing. First of all, keep in mind that Apple has never built affordable products and the iPhone has always launched with a premium price tag. The company itself doesn’t afford to release a cheap product because it’s entire brand would be severely affected.
And what it does instead is invest in products that retain the premium price tag, but which would still sell well no matter what. Because the Apple brand is already strong enough all over across the world to make nearly every single product a major hit despite its features. Apple can sell anything as long as it has its logo.
Look at the AirPods, for instance. For me, their design still looks ridiculous, and the setbacks they come with are huge. You can easily lose them in a second and, to be honest, I don’t find them super-comfortable either. But they are people wearing them all over the place. And they do it proudly, just because it’s an Apple product.
The Apple brand has more or less reached an iconic status and the firm is often positioned as a luxury device manufacturer. And a low-cost iPhone doesn’t align with all of these.
So no, I think the cheaper iPhone being pretty expensive isn’t such a big surprise, and there’s a chance it’ll sell in high volumes anyway. Apple itself expects this model to account for more than 50% of the sales it makes this year, generating the super-cycle I was talking about earlier.
Whether this is going to happen or not remains to be seen, but what I expect to happen is for this iPhone to be the new catalyst of Apple going forward and go well beyond that $1 trillion market cap it just reached.