Remember the days when you had to wait for a really really long time for a new iPhone to hit the shelves? Well, those are the bygone days. With Mr. Jobs out of the picture, the tech giant has been on a roller coaster ride and keeps rolling out new iPhones by the bulk. It released the iPhone 8, 8+ and the most expensive iPhone X last year instead of launching one phone per cycle. And as rumors would have it, three new iPhones are on their way to us this year only.
Amit Daryanani, RBC Capital Markets’ analyst suggested that Apple is going to release three iPhones in 2018. There could be a successor to the iPhone X (maybe the iPhone X2?), a bigger iPhone X Plus, and maybe a cheaper plus-sized iPhone with a 6.1-inch LCD screen.
Daryanani also said that the LCD iPhone could sell the most and could even be taken up half of all iPhone production. He also mentioned that “We think the new LCD iPhone (iPhone 9?) will be featured with a 6.1” full screen, and possibly with 3D sensing. Based on our channel checks, we believe the new features should drive iPhone 9 sell-through, provided pricing is reasonable. Additionally, we think there is potential for a larger-capacity battery as new features are added to iPhones.”
The new iPhone could cost $650 or $700. It a bit cheaper considering Apple asks not less than $749 for a big screen. The normal-sized iPhone X2 (maybe) is also expected to cost a bit less than the iPhone X at $899.
Daryanani also wrote, “Based on our channel checks with suppliers, we believe current production expectation for new iPhones is ~80-90M units for second half calendar 2018, which is below suppliers’ expectation of ~100-120M units for iPhone 8/X in early 2017. However, we would note that compared to the very optimistic expectation for iPhone 8/X sell-through, supply chain partners now have a more subdued expectation”.
These are just expectations and no official announcements are out yet.
Let’s wait for this year’s iPhone parade then. Shall we?