Ming-Chi Kuo, from KGI Securities, is an Apple analyst that is considered to be highly reliable. He has made the prediction that an iPhone X of the cheaper variety will find its way to launch towards the end of 2018. He has made accurate predictions about developments in Apple products for the past ongoing six years.
Back in January 2018, Kuo stated that he predicts a cheaper iPhone X is certainly on its way, and that it is likely to have lowers specs as well. This cheaper iPhone will still have some expected features, such as the facial recognition, no home button, and the 6.1-inch edge-to-edge screen.
With regards to the tradeoffs, which will allow the price to come down, he expects some certain changes however. For instance, the OLED screen is likely to be replaced with the older LED screen. There is also a high probability that the stainless steel casing of the current iPhone X will give way to an aluminum case. And the camera should have only a single lens, which will also save money in the manufacturing process.
With a lower price, Apple could stand to gain Chinese market shares. Instead of the launch price we saw when the iPhone X came out, the new price would be in the range of $700 to $800, USD.
Brand new iPhone models usually appear in September, with earlier iPhone models experiencing price drop of at least $100. Kuo states that in lieu of dropping the price of the original iPhone X, the cheaper version, with lower specs, will instead take its place. So, taking that information into consideration, it’s no wonder that there has been no mention of an iPhone 9 as of yet.
In the meantime, Kuo has also predicted that it is highly possible that Apple is building yet another version of the iPhone X, this time with components that are much better. Still further in the future, he sees another iPhone X Plus that will tout a huge 6.5-inch OLED screen, which would give the Apple community a total of three new devices by September of this year.
Still, this strategy has been attempted before, as was seen in 2013. Apple attempted a lower cost iPhone, known as the iPhone 5C, instead of discounting the already year-old device that was on the market at the time. The disaster that ensued saw sales drop even further as demand for a colorful device took precedence among users.
