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Apple iPhone X Demand Limited, Wall Street Analysts Say

fortune.com

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Re: Apple iPhone X Demand Limited, Wall Street Analysts Say

#21

Post by dkrich »

I think market analysts continue to miss the mark on this story.

What I keep hearing over and over are variations of "people are turned off by the $1,000 price tag." I think this is a complete misread. People don't pay $1k for an iPhone because it's the practical thing to do. If practicality is the #1 priority for phone shoppers, they will simply buy a 7 or 8. I don't think this comprises the top of the market, though, and the top of the market is Apple's wheelhouse.

Practicality has nothing to do with why people buy the X. People buy the X because it's a status symbol and they want to be seen with it. With consumer spending up pretty much across the board, I will be very surprised if Apple misses on earnings next month or reduces guidance. I think comparisons to the release of the 6 are misguided as well, since this phone was in shorter supply to begin with, carried a 50% higher price point, and was released alongside two other models.

Re: Apple iPhone X Demand Limited, Wall Street Analysts Say

#22

Post by Jonnax »

olegkikin wrote: post #8

What do people buy $1000 smartphones for? For gaming I can get a pretty good gaming PC for that amount, or Xbox One X with a VR headset. I've never seen anybody do anything really cool with their phone - everyone browses the internet, checks the email, does chats/videochats, maps, take photos, and some silly mobile gaming. I do that all on my sub $200 phone.

Because it's a nice device? Fast, sleek, good camera, stylish etc

Why do people buy nice cars instead of the cheapest, most economical models?

Re: Apple iPhone X Demand Limited, Wall Street Analysts Say

#23

Post by PacketPaul »

dfabulich wrote: post #11
olegkikin wrote: post #8

What do people buy $1000 smartphones for? For gaming I can get a pretty good gaming PC for that amount, or Xbox One X with a VR headset. I've never seen anybody do anything really cool with their phone - everyone browses the internet, checks the email, does chats/videochats, maps, take photos, and some silly mobile gaming. I do that all on my sub $200 phone.

JS-heavy sites are night-and-day faster on iOS, thanks primarily to faster CPUs (which is mostly due to better L2/L3 caches). The iPhone X has 8MB of L2 cache; your sub $200 phone likely has no L2 at all. Even high end Android phones have, at most, 1MB of L2 cache. This shows up pretty clearly in Speedometer scores. https://browser.geekbench.com/ios-benchmarks https://browser.geekbench.com/android-benchmarks

Can you post a few links of websites that are painfully slow on low end machines? I would like to test with my Son’s $64 Android vs my iPhone X.

Re: Apple iPhone X Demand Limited, Wall Street Analysts Say

#24

Post by yladiz »

Yetanfou wrote: post #19
yladiz wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The way some people use their iPhone (my partner included) and all the (cr)Apps they have and what they do, it may as well be an android phoning home to google The difference is that with the apps installed on a phone, you can uninstall the app. With Android you can't just "uninstall" the Play Store.

Sure you can. You'll need to uninstall Google Play Services as well but it is definitely possible to run Android without the Google-specific bits. It's is the first thing I do when setting up a new Android-device.

Out of curiosity, how difficult is this to do? Would the average user be able to do this easily?

Re: Apple iPhone X Demand Limited, Wall Street Analysts Say

#25

Post by vageli »

Yetanfou wrote: post #19
yladiz wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The way some people use their iPhone (my partner included) and all the (cr)Apps they have and what they do, it may as well be an android phoning home to google The difference is that with the apps installed on a phone, you can uninstall the app. With Android you can't just "uninstall" the Play Store.

Sure you can. You'll need to uninstall Google Play Services as well but it is definitely possible to run Android without the Google-specific bits. It's is the first thing I do when setting up a new Android-device.

This is not trivial and is not akin to simply uninstalling an app (coming from a google-free Android user on a pixel).

Re: Apple iPhone X Demand Limited, Wall Street Analysts Say

#26

Post by [deleted] »

dkrich wrote: post #21

I think market analysts continue to miss the mark on this story. What I keep hearing over and over are variations of "people are turned off by the $1,000 price tag." I think this is a complete misread. People don't pay $1k for an iPhone because it's the practical thing to do. If practicality is the #1 priority for phone shoppers, they will simply buy a 7 or 8. I don't think this comprises the top of the market, thoug…

[deleted]

Re: Apple iPhone X Demand Limited, Wall Street Analysts Say

#27

Post by jsjohnst »

I wonder if these analysts actually get out in the world or just sit in cubicles closed off from the real world. Traveling this holiday season, I saw the characteristic notch all over the place. Rural areas of flyover country included, saw them everywhere. In the month prior while in NYC, I saw them being used by folks of virtually every division of socio-economic background. I’ve not traveled internationally yet since it was released, but it seems in the US anyway that the X marks the spot of a home run release for Apple to me.

Re: Apple iPhone X Demand Limited, Wall Street Analysts Say

#28

Post by walterbell »

andrewmcwatters wrote: post #14
dfabulich wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

JS-heavy sites are night-and-day faster on iOS, thanks primarily to faster CPUs (which is mostly due to better L2/L3 caches). The iPhone X has 8MB of L2 cache; your sub $200 phone likely has no L2 at all. Even high end Android phones have, at most, 1MB of L2 cache. This shows up pretty clearly in Speedometer scores. https://browser.geekbench.com/ios-benchmarks https://browser.geekbench.com/android-benchmarks

As devices get faster, developers use more compute budget, leaving other devices in the dust. Developers write code against high-end devices.

Not if their site needs a large audience, e.g. ecommerce.

Re: Apple iPhone X Demand Limited, Wall Street Analysts Say

#29

Post by aiofgniaotnio »

dkrich wrote: post #21

I think market analysts continue to miss the mark on this story. What I keep hearing over and over are variations of "people are turned off by the $1,000 price tag." I think this is a complete misread. People don't pay $1k for an iPhone because it's the practical thing to do. If practicality is the #1 priority for phone shoppers, they will simply buy a 7 or 8. I don't think this comprises the top of the market, thoug…

>People buy the X because it's a status symbol and they want to be seen with it.

I find this aspect of the tech industry so gross that I'm considering changing careers. Building a new tool that makes people's lives better is great, but much of the time it just becomes a status symbol. No one should feel bad for owning a machine that's a few years old but does everything they need. I'm not convinced that consumer gadgets fill a real need any more rather than just being new and shiny for the sake of being new and shiny.

Unless we as a society can get over showing off by buying things we don't need, I think we're in trouble.

Re: Apple iPhone X Demand Limited, Wall Street Analysts Say

#30

Post by matwood »

dkrich wrote: post #21

I think market analysts continue to miss the mark on this story. What I keep hearing over and over are variations of "people are turned off by the $1,000 price tag." I think this is a complete misread. People don't pay $1k for an iPhone because it's the practical thing to do. If practicality is the #1 priority for phone shoppers, they will simply buy a 7 or 8. I don't think this comprises the top of the market, thoug…

> If practicality is the #1 priority for phone shoppers, they will simply buy a 7 or 8.

Yep, Apple is slowly filling in price points below the top end. They will not ever be budget, but they have iPhones starting at $349.

I'm confused about all the hubbub around the 1k price tag. Top end phones with the next storage option were already ~1k. Additionally, most people buy their phone using the free loan from the carrier so the price goes from ~$40/month to ~$50/month if they wanted the X.

I think Apple beats earnings and successfully raises the ASP across the iPhone line using the X.

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