Reuters:
Apple Inc’s older iPhone 7 models are outselling the recently launched iPhone 8 ahead of the early November debut of the premium iPhone X, broker KeyBanc Capital Markets said, citing carrier store surveys.
Traditionally, new editions of the iPhone have sold quickly as fans queue for the latest upgrade, but early surveys have added to chatter that the iPhone 8 is not proving as popular as its predecessors.
- Not clear if this is true. These are not Apple’s numbers.
- If true, not clear if the motivation is demand for the iPhone X dimming demand for the iPhone 8, or a statement about the relative perceived values of the iPhone 7 vs iPhone 8.
No matter, this is the first time Apple has created this type of choice for the iPhone consumer, pitching a next generation product at the same time (give or take a month) as a new product that extends an existing line.
For what it’s worth, I was due for a new phone, and was water-falling my iPhone 6s to my daughter. I wasn’t ready to give up touch ID, or the current look of the iPhone (I like bezels). I looked at pricing, and decided that for the $150 difference the wireless charging and double the hard disk space (I am an electronic pack rat) of the iPhone 8 was a more attractive purchase over the iPhone 7. So far, I’ve been very happy with it. Aesthetically, it reminds me of my favorite iPhone design of all time, the iPhone 4. My one example does not make a trend, but I will be interested to see the popularity of the 8.
I got my wife an iPhone 7 perhaps 6 months ago (she found her old 6+ too slow). It’s a fantastic device, still extremely fast, great camera. It wouldn’t surprise me that the casual consumer, walking into a carrier store, sees the two, sees the 7 is $150 cheaper, and go for it.
In this scenario, the $50 price hike, RAM notwithstanding, makes the 8 particularly expensive. Also, I’m not sure the X is related at all to this kind of consumer, who wants to buy an iPhone but doesn’t want to spend a ton of money.
Also, some of the public really misses the fact that Rose Gold and other colors were dropped in the 8 line. It didn’t occur to me at first glance, but this was noticeable in posts by the fashion-conscious, e.g., the women on the Rocket podcast spent quite a bit of time lamenting it. People often have matching cases and accessories already.
Poor beleaguered Apple. They are probably running around pulling their hair out trying to figure out what went wrong while trying to avoid tripping over all the extra cash they have lying around. Won’t be long now till they are out of business!! Mark my words!!
“It wouldn’t surprise me that the casual consumer, walking into a carrier store, sees the two, sees the 7 is $150 cheaper, and go for it.”
You are correct. It’s called “Decoy pricing”, a strategy to shape buying preferences. In this case, Apple actually wants to sell more iPhone 7s because profits (even with price discounts) are higher than iPhone 8 profits.
The iPhone 8 costs almost as much to manufacture (only significant difference is OLED) as the iPhone X, but sells for $300 less.
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4112991-apple-decoy-pricing-iphone-x
“Also, some of the public really misses the fact that Rose Gold and other colors were dropped in the 8 line. It didn’t occur to me at first glance, but this was noticeable in posts by the fashion-conscious, e.g., the women on the Rocket podcast spent quite a bit of time lamenting it. “
This goes to show that, irrespective of geek interest in technical specks, consumers buy for esoteric reasons that have nothing to do with processor speeds, etc.
Yep, Apple’s been a master of this for years and has tons of data on what works. If they didn’t want iPhone 7 to sell and wanted to focus on the iPhone 8, they’d drop it and only have the 6s as the fallback.
Ultimately, they want to make sure they capture the high end (the X) and the low-end (the 6s and the 7). The 8 is, in many ways, a very nice high-end stopgap unit (power of the X without the overhead, hassle, and yield issues of the new form factor).
I bought the iPhone 8. It’s beautiful, refined and I want touch ID. So unless Apple keeps an iPhone in the lineup with Touch ID, this will likely be my last iPhone.
nope. after face id is in everyone’s hands and the panic susbsides, you’ll get another phone that has it and forget that you were ever panicked about it.
Agreed—I can’t wait for face ID as the replacement for touch ID. Touch ID is a great fingerprint sensor, but it fails for me more often than you’d think (e.g., at least 3-4 times a day, my hands have just been washed/showered and it doesn’t work well, and you get so used to it that those failures are immensely frustrating).