The rumors have spoken. The iPhone X is a sales failure.
Writing for Forbes (note: not the Forbes contributor network and Church of the Based M.O.D.O.K.), Luke Kelly says “The Key To The iPhone X’s Future Lies In China.” (Tip o’ the antlers to The LeeBase.)
Most analysts agree…
…paste tastes delicious.
…that Apple’s most expensive smartphone to date — the iPhone X — has not sold as well as had been hoped.
We hoped it would sell infinity units. It didn’t. This is a tremendous disappointment, something Kelly reminds us over…
…well short of expectations.
…and over…
…far fewer units of the X than projected.
…and over again.
…a lukewarm global reception to the X…
Hey, maybe Apple didn’t sell as many as they thought they would. But the rumor that Apple halved its iPhone X parts that keeps getting quoted just doesn’t make a lot of sense.
A recent Bloomberg report claims that Samsung, the chosen supplier of the X’s new OLED screens, has only shipped half the amount of displays it had prepared for Apple.
The piece Kelly links to doesn’t quote any numbers, but a previous report citing sources within Samsung said Apple had cut orders from 45 to 50 million to just 20 million for the quarter.
What is that incessant beeping you ask? Why, that is the Macalope’s Baloney-ometer going off. Not to be confused with his Bolonga-ometer. The former detects phony-baloney analysis while the latter detects actual bologna. Both are very handy.
Even Forbes contributor Chuck Jones has said you should ignore those reports because there is no way that Apple thought it was going to sell even 40 million iPhone Xs when the previous two years it had only sold about 50 million iPhones total in the same quarter. Could the iPhone X be selling slower than Apple predicted it would? Sure. But it ain’t off by half.
And, yet, people still credulously quote these reports without stopping for a second to ask if they make a lick of sense.
In the U.S., customers have tended to prefer the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus, the X’s cheaper cousins…
The iPhone 8 and 8 Plus combined sell more units than the iPhone X, not separately. So, when you say customers “tend to prefer” them do you mean they’re buying an iPhone 8 and an 8 Plus instead of the iPhone X? Because individually, they prefer the iPhone X. As Apple has stated and the report Kelly links to confirms, the iPhone X has sold more units than any of its currently shipping siblings since it was released. Which, for a $999 phone is terrific.
…while European customers have similarly shown a reluctance to buy into the X’s hype.
Just gonna leave this riiiiiiiight heeeeeeere:
iPhone X boosts Apple OS share in key markets
The flagship iPhone X made it into the top three best-selling devices in the month of December across Europe, Urban China, Japan, Australia and the United States.
Just the top three? A really good phone would bust past zero and into the negative numbers.
Kelly goes on to detail how well the iPhone X is doing in China, which it is. Perhaps it is better said that the key to Apple’s future in China is the iPhone X, rather than the other way around.