Apple could ‘kill off’ the iPhone X this year due to poor sales of the £999 handset, according to Cupertino expert and KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.
This glum forecast from Kuo, who’s known for his Apple-related predictions correct, is due to Apple failing to meet its sales predictions for the most expensive iPhone it has ever released.
According to an investors note spied by Apple Insider, Kuo suggests that the iPhone X will starts its “end of life” process in the summer.
This would seem like an odd move for Apple, given the iPhone X has only been out since last November.
But according to a consumer survey from the Consumer Intelligence Research Partners, iPhone 8 and iPhone X models only accounted for 61% of iPhone sales in the US last year. In comparison, the iPhone 7 models, when new, held a 71% share of iPhone sales in 2016.
So it would appear that the latest generation of iPhones are not selling as well as previous new iPhones have done.
Kuo noted that poor sales of the iPhone X in China can be blamed for fuelling his prediction, as the phone’s controversial display notch has apparently struggled to win-over Chinese customers.
But Apple hasn’t scrapped an iPhone since it did away with the iPhone 5C in 2014. And it would be a bold move for Cupertino to kill-off the iPhone X when it made a song and dance about its Face ID facial recognition tech, which is being adopted by banking apps and other companies for biometric security.
However, Kuo has previously predicted that the design of the iPhone X will carry over into the next-generation of iPhones, and will see the screen notch-equipped phone come in three size options, giving Apple fans more choice. A notch-free iPhone has been mooted for release in 2019.
In other words, while the iPhone X as we currently know it may not be on shelves for that much longer, it’s likely we’ll see similar premium Apple handsets featuring similar technology released on a yearly basis – that the iPhone X will be resuscitated to better meet consumer needs, rather than buried outright, as it were.
Related: Samsung Galaxy S9
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
