Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities has been leaking a lot of information about upcoming iPhones this year, and he’s done it once again. After his famous claim of 3 iPhones being launched this year with bigger batteries now, he has revealed some more information about the devices that will be launched, and some of this new information is alarming.
As you may know already, Kuo and Nomura analysts both had said the long time ago that there will be 3 iPhones this year. One of them is expected to have screen size same as that of iPhone X (5.8-inch OLED display). Another one will be a super-sized iPhone X Plus with 6.5 inch OLED display, and the 3rd one is expected to be a 6.1 inch iPhone with LCD display. This third iPhone, according to the latest note released by Kuo, will be known as iPhone X SE and will be the most affordable version in the entire new lineup.
Being most affordable it will also have a number of compromises. The chief among them is choice of LCD display over OLED. Another major compromise will be battery up to 2,950 mAh only, and the battery is also expected to not use the advanced technology that allowed Apple to squeeze an L-shaped battery pack inside iPhone X. That battery technology will remain with newer iPhone X and iPhone X Plus only. Other notable compromises will include single lens camera and omission of 3D touch.
Now take these compromises and the price of current iPhone SE in consideration, and suddenly the $700 – $800 price that Apple is planning to charge for this device seems a deal breaker! The upcoming SE smartphone of the company is gonna cost double of currently available iPhone SE, mainly because it’ll be inspired by the most expensive iPhone till date. The difference is exactly double – iPhone SE costs $349, while iPhone X SE will cost at least $700.
Other two iPhones are expected to cost even more. According to Kuo the 5.8 inch iPhone X is likely to cost $1,000 (just as it does right now) and the iPhone X Plus is expected to cost as much as $1,440.
Take Apple’s rumored discontinuation of currently available iPhone X into account, and a risky picture comes out to the center. Right now company’s smartphones are available in the price range of $349 – $ 1,150. After the launch of this year’s iPhones and discontinuation of existing models they’ll be in the range of $449 – $1,440 (the cheapest iPhone then will be iPhone 7, priced at $449). Seems one of Apple’s biggest gambles to date.
Still, the gamble may work. By discontinuing the iPhone X launched last year and upgrading it with new models this year Apple may retain the bezel-less display design for premium models only. If, on the other hand, the price of current generation iPhone X would be dropped after the launch of new models to something around $800, it would have resulted in cannibalization of sales for iPhone X SE. Still, it will be interesting to see how many Apple fans flock to company’s stores to buy this new iPhone at this price. Yes, Apple fans are infamous for their loyalty, but that loyalty is gonna go through a difficult test this year. Now it’ll be worth seeing how successfully it passes this test.