From the United press release:
The iPhones will enable agents to assist customers who have checked into their flights with several pre-departure actions, including printing boarding passes and baggage tags anywhere in the airport. Customer service representatives will also be able to assist customers with alternate flight options, helping employees at customer service locations provide additional attention to those with more complex needs.
Future enhancements will include tools to provide full check-in capabilities in airport lobbies and the ability to offer customers much of the same functionality as traditional airport kiosks.
Interesting that they are distributing the iPhone 6 Plus and not the iPhone 6s Plus. An inventory clearing move for Apple? Nah, silly thought on my part, really. The 6 Plus is still being made and 6,000 phones is not enough to move the needle.
[Via Daring Fireball]
I don’t think it’s an inventory clearing move. The Plus is literally for people with bigger pockets/purses. Customer service reps have to carry their phones around and have them with them all the time.
No need to forward the rumor of declining demand. To me, this story says just the opposite.
No, since the 6 isn’t even the lowest end phone Apple sells. (That would be the 5s) They’re still building them, and they’ll likely be around for about a year and a half more.
More likely that United wanted the larger form factor of the 6 Plus, but didn’t need the more advanced tech in the 6s Plus.
I don’t think that it’s an inventory move by Apple (6k units is next to nothing in iPhone numbers).
United probably wanted to hit a specific form factor (screen size) within the iOS platform. Not necessarily a “latest and greatest” kind of device.
By that reasoning, and assuming United saves $100 per unit by going with the iPhone 6+ instead of the latest one (and they probably save more than that – giving that the 6s+ is a hot seller right now)… That represents a minimum $600,000 price difference. 3d Touch, better photos and a faster CPU/GPU might not make $600K worthwhile to splurge.
They probably would have gone for an “iPad Nano” if such a thing had existed, for all we know.
I agree with the idea that United probably wanted the larger form factor, but did not want/need the advancements provided by the 6s+. Another factor is that United has probably been developing and testing this for some time now with the 6+ and would be hesitant to roll out with an untested device.