Over at slate.com Christina Bonnington wonders…
Ms. Bonnington notes that Apple has slashed orders for both the creation of new iPhone Xs as well as their components and speculation is building that the unit is simply not selling as well as Apple hoped it would.
Ms. Bonnington further wonders in the article whether the very steep $1000 price tag might have something to do with the lag in sales of the phone.
I wouldn’t be surprised, but I suspect other things are afoot as well.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Sometimes an electronic product, be it a cell phone or computer or laptop or tablet, reaches a level where its about as good as its going to get. Yeah, new models might come out and they may indeed feature some new/better things but at some point they become very incremental and small, to the point where people don’t feel the need to “upgrade” like they used to.
I’ve told this story far too many times before, but I distinctly recall the desktop PC rise, from processors that ran on the 8086 chip to the 286, 386, 486, Pentium, Pentium II, etc.
The difference between the 8086 processors and the 286 machines was like night and day. Similarly, when the 386 machines came out they made the 286 machines look like they were in the stone age. Similarly, the 486 made the 386 look weak.
By the time the Pentium models came out, though, the changes were much smaller. Instead of seeing a brand new computer that clearly outpaced the one you currently had, you had a new computer system that was perhaps a little faster and a little nicer but not anything you had to get.
Thus, instead of considering buying a new computer system each year, I found myself going some 6 years with my Pentium machine before replacing it. And I did so only because the computer I was using was starting to glitch and I need my desktop for the work I do and figured I should get a new system before my old one simply dies out.
With regard to cell phones, I fear they too are reaching that point. There was, of course, a time when there was a strong and noticeable difference between one model and the next year’s model but, like the desktop computers, that isn’t quite as big a difference anymore.
Certainly one doesn’t need to upgrade to the current state-of-the-art model as before.
Especially when it’ll cost you some $1000.