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Apple Might Discontinue the iPhone X This Summer (bgr.com) 181

BGR shares a startling prediction from Ming-Chi Kuo, the Apple analyst at KGI securities: Kuo -- who we should note has an exemplary track record with respect to iPhone rumors -- adds that Apple may opt to discontinue the current iPhone X entirely if sales are underwhelming. "KGI also expects a trio of iPhone models in the fall of 2018," AppleInsider notes. "He predicts the iPhone X will be 'end of life' in the summer of 2018, instead of being retained as a lower-cost option in the following year." If Kuo's projection pans out, this would represent a marked shift in Apple's iPhone sales strategy. Going back nearly a decade, Apple has always positioned older iPhone models around as a wallet-friendly alternative for users who weren't keen on paying a premium for Apple's latest and greatest.
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Apple Might Discontinue the iPhone X This Summer

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  • by Anonymous Coward

    VERY misleading title.

  • by Anonymous Coward

    If you own apple stock, I'd be selling it.

    • Re:Apple is dying (Score:5, Insightful)

      by 0100010001010011 ( 652467 ) on Saturday January 20, 2018 @12:15PM (#55967539)

      Last time they at least could go re-hire Jobs.

      They need another Jobs at the helm. Design by committee and a leader that doesn't know exactly what he wants is killing them.

      • by Dr. Evil ( 3501 )

        It's like 1996 all over again! Let's ask Michael Dell what he would do with Apple?

        They're seriously in danger of losing their position as the most profitable company in the world. https://9to5mac.com/2017/07/20/apple-global-fortune-500/ [9to5mac.com]

      • Jobs took a bunch of ideas that had been floating around for decades and finally made products out of them. The ipod was like another mp3 player at the time. itunes the software they bought the company that developed it and it was one of a dozen MP3 apps out there at the time. The value wasn't in Jobs, but in the NEXT OS which became OS X and then IOS and still lives on.

        If Jobs was still running apple it would be a shadow and a minor player compared to Android and probably losing money again. First thing Ti

        • Re:Apple is dying (Score:4, Insightful)

          by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 20, 2018 @04:17PM (#55968707)

          The ipod was like another mp3 player at the time.

          Creative Labs' Nomad. It had more space than the iPod. Some models might have had wi-fi. It wasn't lame. (That's the meme, at least.) I had a Nomad. It was terrible. It had a 6GB laptop drive (compare to the original iPod's 5GB 1.8" drive), was the size of a portable CD player (compare to the iPod's "bar of soap" size), and transferred music to/from the drive via USB1.1 (compare to the iPod's Firewire connection). Oh, and it didn't have WiFi either. That's why the CmdrTaco "review" of the iPod has been such a dank meme for so long. It was hilariously off-the-mark.

          itunes the software they bought the company that developed it and it was one of a dozen MP3 apps out there at the time.

          Cassidy & Greene's SoundJam MP3. Apple didn't buy the company or the software. They hired away their developers, then tasked them with re-creating SoundJam MP3, but with more brushed metal texture and fewer supported audio formats. Total dick move, and the press called Apple out on it back then. That was before Apple had gotten fully and firmly past the press' collective gag reflex. Now, journalism is practically sustained by the "protein shakes" dispensed by Apple.

          The value wasn't in Jobs, but in the NEXT OS which became OS X and then IOS and still lives on.

          You think Gil Amelio would've kicked ass and taken names like Jobs did from 1997 to 2007? Hardly. When interviewed, Amelio called bringing Jobs back was his greatest act to help the company. Because it worked. Yes, basing Mac OS X on NextStep helped. But Mac OS X isn't NextStep. It's FreeBSD with some cross-pollination with OpenStep. There's A) no original NextStep code involved (since NextStep ran on 68k machines only) and B) it's not OpenStep either, but instead FreeBSD with a GUI that works somewhat similar to OpenStep's, but is based on PDF instead of PostScript. (And, yes, I'm aware that PDF is technically PostScript 3. But it has some compatibility breaks with PostScript 2 and earlier.)

          Tim Cook, however, can't run the company for shit. Time after time, he's made POHR mistakes. He's John Sculley 2.0. I'd rate AAPL a "sell, now", starting with the day Jobs died. And as for Android, I wouldn't rate Alphabet much higher. Android is a shit-show of epic proportions. It makes Windows look well-engineered and secure.

          • I'd rate AAPL a "sell, now", starting with the day Jobs died.

            AAPL's stock is up 130% since Steve Jobs died. That's a "sell, now" in your book? LOL

            • The question is not what Apple stock did before you consider a purchase, but what it's likely to do afterwards. If it's going to keep going up, buy. If not, don't buy. Making a guess on this requires more than looking at past performance.

      • the iPhoneX was trying to solve. Namely that having an iPhone isn't a big deal anymore. The X was suppose to restore the iPhone to being a premium product you could show off your wealth with. Like expensive clothing, headphones and cars.
    • And if you own apples, don't forget to eat them before they go bad.

    • If you own apple stock, I'd be selling it.

      Apple has a PE of 19. Google has a PE of 38, and Amazon's is over 300.

      So future underperformance is already priced into Apple's stock. Investor consensus is that they will see little or no growth.

    • Why bother telling other people what to do. If you truly believe that it's going to fall, you could be shorting it yourself and making a tidy sum in the process.
  • As long as... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by jawtheshark ( 198669 ) * <slashdot.jawtheshark@com> on Saturday January 20, 2018 @11:57AM (#55967441) Homepage Journal
    As long as they keep the SE in the current form factor. The SE is basically the only iPhone that has good price/value ratio. I had the philosophy of getting my wifes old iPhone when she gets the latest model every two years. Last one she got was a 7 and, as such I got her old 6. Never again. These phones are so thin, I basically let it slip all the time, and within two weeks I let it fall, shatter the screen and TouchId was ruined too. Third party repair was so-so, and a half functioning phone sucks. So, I ponied up for the cheapest SE, getting back the 5 form factor. I couldn’t be happier. First time in over 10 years, I actually paid for a new phone.
    • Re:As long as... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by vux984 ( 928602 ) on Saturday January 20, 2018 @12:23PM (#55967595)

      It might not be the right phone for you, but it seems to me that the phone was not the issue.

      After all, your wife used it for 2 years and handed you a perfectly intact phone.

      • Women have smaller hands and purses. So, yes, it’s me... never denied that. Fact that it’s the cheapest iPhone helps. If I use it four years, I’ll have paid 100€/year. Decent.
        • That still seems expensive to me. I bought several iphone like new 5S phones about a year ago for $50 each and other than the form factor cannot tell the difference between them and the iphone 6. If you are planning on using a phone for 4 years then you can save significant money by buying a 2 year old phone every two years and even more money if you hold onto it longer.

          • Will keep it in mind next time. The iPhone 5 of my wife lasted over 5 years. Two for her, three for me. At a certain point, the battery starts to become a big issue. I did several third party repairs for the battery. Invariably lasted only six months with my usage pattern.
        • Oddly enough, most of the women I know tend to carry larger phones like the Samsung Note or the larger iPhone because they can easily keep it in a purse without worry of how well it fits in a pocket and because even with typical phones with screen sizes around 4.5-4.7" they need to use them with two hands anyway.

          I can see why a lot of people prefer smaller phones though. Even I find the ~4.7-5.1" displays in most flagship phones a bit cumbersome to use unless I'm holding the phone perfectly which isn't a
          • Re: As long as... (Score:5, Interesting)

            by Brockmire ( 4931623 ) on Saturday January 20, 2018 @04:36PM (#55968799)
            In the Vancouver area, I regularly see Asian women with phones the size of their faces. It's kinda comical. They also seem to hold them closer than most people, so you can often see a head with hair and a phone/tablet looking thing for their faces.
        • by GNious ( 953874 )

          Shit - if I keep my current phone for 4 years, it'll have cost 2.5€/ear.

          (9€, sim-lock is illegal here, stayed on exactly the same service-level as before)

        • by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

          Women have smaller hands and purses.

          And I see them with the huge phones in their hands (hands, plural, because they can't hold it in one hand - too big), so that isn't accurate at all. It's interesting to watch them wrangle a 6" phablet in two hands, which obviously was bought because they needed the screen size than practicality.

          Anyhow, apparently the real reason is the iPhone X sales in China is disappointing. Apparently the screen is too small. If your phone requires at least two hands to hold it, it's

  • by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 20, 2018 @12:04PM (#55967473)

    It's just an environmental nightmare. Phone hardware per se can last 10+ years, WHY do we have to buy the new shiny model again every 12 months? And what happens to the rest?

    Apple being "environmentally friendly" is just a huge joke. They don't even pretend to greenwash anymore.

    • lets see, cant easily pop out and buy a replacement battery at walmarts, so theres that, and if the screen breaks, or that super thin frame that holds the phone hardware gets bent and breaks the circuit board that would put a phone out of order for sure, and on the software side if the developers are no longer supporting that older phone model then your phone's software is obsolete and could be vulnerable to bad things
    • Well, they are environmentally friendly on one side such as energy production, recycling, using aluminium for a lot of products and yet on the other side they completely disregard the environmental impact of other things such as the inability to upgrade a computer means it's going to get discarded sooner than it should.

    • by Marlin Schwanke ( 3574769 ) on Saturday January 20, 2018 @01:31PM (#55967917)

      It's just an environmental nightmare. Phone hardware per se can last 10+ years, WHY do we have to buy the new shiny model again every 12 months? And what happens to the rest?

      Apple being "environmentally friendly" is just a huge joke. They don't even pretend to greenwash anymore.

      Clearly you just want to bitch. All high-end phones can be traded in for the new model. They don't throw those used phones away. They get refurbished and resold. All of the carriers do this. There are 3rd parties that will buy your phone too. Before the carriers started doing trade-ins and leases, I'd sell my used iPhone on Craigslist for a pretty good price. So, unless you completely destroy your phone or toss it in a drawer when you get a new one it is being re-used somewhere.

      • by mspohr ( 589790 )

        I've purchased a few "refurbished" Nexus 5 phones to replace family phones which have been dropped too many times. They are cheap and work great. Usually they look just like a new phone. I'm sticking with the Nexus 5 until there is a compelling reason to upgrade. It's plenty fast, has all the features I need (and none of the bells and whistles which just irritate me).
        I'll let the bozos who have to have the latest and greatest phone dump their old gear on me.

      • by EvilSS ( 557649 )
        Agreed. People act like when a new phone or laptop comes out and everyone upgrades they throw their old devices in the bin instead of trading them in (where they end up being refurbed and sold or used for warranty replacements or recycled if they are beyond useful) or handing them down or selling them. Apple devices, in particular, hold their resale value pretty well.

        Here is an article on what happens to those Apple trade-in phones: http://abcnews.go.com/Business/recycled-iphones-apple-products/story?id [go.com]
  • by FudRucker ( 866063 ) on Saturday January 20, 2018 @12:09PM (#55967503)
    and considering this iphone X debacle I think I will stick with off-brand android phones, so far my samsung is doing okay, but i am not sure i want to continue blowing hundreds of bucks every couple of years just for a phone i only use for phone calls and txt msgs, hopefully china will flood the market with decent phones that sell for under a hundred that are comparable to samsung galaxy S# models
    • by thegarbz ( 1787294 ) on Saturday January 20, 2018 @01:44PM (#55967971)

      hopefully china will flood the market with decent phones

      As a matter of interest if all you're doing is phone calls and txt msgs why are you waiting for a "decent" phone? There's plenty of options out there even with the label "smartphone" that could suit you for under $100.

      Hell go buy a second hand Galaxy S5 and a fist full of spare batteries and you'll have something that lasts you forever.

    • Virtue-signal much?

      Only it doesn't seem like signaling ignorance is much of a virtue. Unlike you, I've owned both Android and iPhones so I can see what both sides are like.

      The iPhone X is exactly the opposite of a "debacle". It is by far the largest improvement in using a phone I have had, since the original iPhone first came out. FaceID is the future and I am not buying another mobile device (laptop, phone or tablet) that does not support FaceID (not facial recognition: 3D face authentication) - between

      • >FaceID is the future

        Its soooo not. Biometrics are not good security , THEY NEVER WILL BE. FaceID is already dead, you are too blind to see it. I will never allow a computer to authenticate me by biometrics. Its a password you cant change...
    • No need for an "Off-Brand"

      Motorola Moto-E does most things at an affordable price and it has a rubberized back and Gorilla Glass up front.

    • for one of the newer Samsungs is they often have the latest Radio tech, so you might (might) get better signal out of it. If you're on T-Mobile they're going to be the only way to hop on the new bandwidth they bought in that big auction for a while. Them and LG, and both phones will be in the $700 range. Other than that anything in the $220 range has virtually all the performance save for 3D gaming and less than 1/2 the price.
    • by jon3k ( 691256 )

      and considering this iphone X debacle

      Huh? I'm using an iPhone X and it's great. What's the debacle?

  • I am loving my iPhone 8 I purchased in December. That is really the best iPhone out right now!
  • by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 20, 2018 @12:15PM (#55967543)

    It's not surprising. The iPhone X is a terrible phone, and Apple has been caught trying to trick people into upgrading.

    Face ID is a failed experiment. It manages to combine barely working with being insecure as hell: you have to hold the phone at very specific angles to get it to see your face, meaning that casually unlocking the phone is a chore. But it will also unlock using a simple folded photograph if held correctly, making it trivial for adversaries to unlock. Face ID needs to go away.

    The removal of the home button is disastrous, if only because Apple already delegated a ton of functionality to it that now has to be redistributed across the rest of the phone. The home button used to perform different functions based on if you tapped it, or clicked it, or double-clicked it, or double-tapped it, or triple-clicked it. But now they've removed that button entirely and replaced it with ..... nothing. So now the power button has to take over for functions like accessing Apple Pay and Siri. Meaning that as simple a thing as turning off the phone now involves secret button combinations. (It's click volume up, click volume down, then hold the power button, in that order. I kid you not. Hold the power button briefly to bring up the power controls, longer to forcibly reboot.)

    The new "home space" as the bottom means that a ton of apps now have UI that is right next to it, making triggering it incredibly annoying. Of course, "legacy" apps that aren't "optimized for iPhone X" have giant black bars on the top and bottom, meaning that the apps that place controls on top of the "home space" are in theory "optimized for iPhone X" but developers don't seem to have figured out how to deal with a giant dead area at the bottom of the screen.

    And then there's the notch, transforming a somewhat nice looking display into a horned ugly mess. You'd think this being an Apple decision the status bar wouldn't have been an after-thought, but quite a few pieces of information are flat-out missing on the iPhone X because there flat-out isn't space. Don't believe me? Swipe up the control center and .... no, wait, it's now swipe down the control center, but only from the right horn, because the left horn handles the old "swipe down" gesture. Anyway, swipe down the control center, which will display the "old" iPhone status bar, and look at all the icons that used to be hidden. "Minor" things like bluetooth status and battery level, for those bluetooth headphones you now have to use because there is no headphone jack.

    So, anyway, I'm not surprised. The iPhone X is a disaster even if you ignore the price.

    • by Anonymous Coward

      Perhaps much of this is true. I like TouchID on my 6 and would upgrade to an 8 before an X. I'm not interested in FaceID at all.

      However, what the underlying article is talking about is that Apple is just considering not offering the X as the lower cost option once the replacements come out. The same analyst is predicting two updated variants of the current X as new models (with updated versions of FaceID). Apple is just considering not offering the $1000+ phone as the "budget" model to buy once the repl

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by gmb61 ( 815164 )

      But it will also unlock using a simple folded photograph if held correctly, making it trivial for adversaries to unlock.

      Please cite your evidence for this. I'll wait.

      • But it will also unlock using a simple folded photograph if held correctly, making it trivial for adversaries to unlock.

        Please cite your evidence for this. I'll wait.

        Yeah... there are loads of disadvantages to having face-unlock as the security mechanism, but from all the actual reviews I've read have said that it works pretty well, at all sensible angles, and requires a real 3D person to work. I can find loads of reasons to criticise Apple without making shit up.

      • by dk20 ( 914954 ) on Saturday January 20, 2018 @06:22PM (#55969255)

        why do people always post "cite your evidence.. i 'll wait" but cant seem to bother using GOOGLE??

        Here is a 10 year old boy unlocking his moms phone
        https://www.wired.com/story/10... [wired.com]

        here is a mask unlocking a phone
        https://www.macrumors.com/2017... [macrumors.com]

        here is the face ID not working for apples own demo
        https://www.theverge.com/circu... [theverge.com]

        try using google..

        • Tried using google and it doesn't bring anything up.

          Also, Face ID 'failing' during the demo is actually an instance of it working correctly. It was picked up and triggered a few times but failed to authenticate the face of the person that picked it up, because that person wasn't C-Fed. When C-Fed went to demo it, the phone had turned on the passcode authentication because that's what the phones do when you try to authenticate too many times and fail, even with Touch ID.

    • One of my few gripes last month was that it was hard for me to unlock in bed laying on my side with faceid. That seems to have improved dramatically since then.

      The issues with the screen and home zone you describe are pretty limited for me; most of my apps don’t take advantage of the notch yet (and there are a number of great ways to improve the UI by adding in support, like putting the menu in the top left so it disappears), but not that big of a deal.

      I have almost gotten over the animated poop, but

  • I'm sorry, but ... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Qbertino ( 265505 ) <moiraNO@SPAMmodparlor.com> on Saturday January 20, 2018 @12:16PM (#55967555)

    "Apple" and "wallet friendly" in the same sentence simply does not compute. Really not. And I've got an MB Air myself.

    • "Apple" and "wallet friendly" in the same sentence simply does not compute. Really not. And I've got an MB Air myself.

      Wallet friendly requires context. This isn't wallet friendly for the poor. It's wallet friendly for the sheeple who must own an iPhone to be cool, but can't afford the latest shiny thing.

  • I suspect face recognition was a kludge to get the X out the door. I don't know if people are actually acclimating to it as they did fingerprints. I have heard that there is issue with light, and I know in the morning I can unlock my phone without looking at it. I think it would be annoying to have to bring it around to my face.

    If the X is discontinued, that likely means that Apple has a on screen fingerprint recognition system, which is what they originally wanted for the X, IIRC. Maybe they keep the

    • I have the X. Face ID works pretty well, better than I expected . Does seem to learn as well, even with sunglasses on. I was skiing over the holidays, and I found that ID worked with sunglasses but not goggles (what I would expect.) I also grew out a beard for this trip and phone keeps up with your change in look. The day I shaved I though maybe it would fail, but it did not.

      I use apple pay fairly often, and I have found that face ID works about as fast as using your finger. Also, I needlessly worried th
    • by Anonymous Coward

      I fully agree with this. Face ID has been mostly OK for me, but hit or miss in some scenarios. I wouldn't want to go back to a home button again, but if they did incorporate Touch ID into the display, I would switch from the X - as long as the new phone is about the same size as the X. The biggest benefits to me going from 7+ to X was the reduction in physical size and increase is display size. 7 was just too small, 7+ was just a bit too big.

      As far as the notch goes, the problems with it are caused by l

      • As far as the notch goes, the problems with it are caused by lazy/ignorant app developers. Apps could easily take advantage of the notch, or just ignore it entirely and let it continue showing the time, signal, etc... But no, I have yet to find an app that is properly set up to work with or around the notch. I won't hold this against apple though, this is all on you lazy developers. Get with the damn program. My how you have forgotten the nightmare of developing apps to work on hundreds of different Android phones each with their own differences and quirks.

        So the issue that you hate the "lazy developers" for is NOT supporting a wide variety of platforms and resolutions? The exact same thing you condemn the Android ecosystem for offering?

  • by Anonymous Coward

    While there are plenty of people that hate Apple and the iPhone X (I prefer touch id and no notch myself), this isn't about the X as a concept being discontinued. Apple is just considering not selling the $1000 phone as the lower cost option, once the replacement models come out. Usually they will take the current flagship model and offer a cheaper lower memory version as the budget device when a new replacement is offered.

    They could put a version of the 8 as the lower cost option, or the 8 itself if ther

  • In other words, Apple introduced a major step change in its model line in 2017 with the X and when it introduces the next version of the X in 2018 it may not keep the previous version on sale as it has done for some less extensive model changes in the past.

    Conclusion: Apple is DOOOOOOOOMED!

  • A case study in why just because you can doesn't mean you should.

  • Good (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Misagon ( 1135 )

    I wish they would discontinue all their cell phones.
    "Smart" phones have turned people into antisocial idiots, antisocial in that they have forgot how to properly interact with people in their immediate physical surroundings as the people on the other side or the app they are in have taken their attention.

    Sorry for the rant, but I just had an encounter with an idiot in the grocery store and I am still pissed. Not that it does not happen every day though.

    • Re:Good (Score:4, Funny)

      by Sebby ( 238625 ) on Saturday January 20, 2018 @01:14PM (#55967833)

      Sorry for the rant, but I just had an encounter with an idiot in the grocery store and I am still pissed. Not that it does not happen every day though.

      Which - running into idiots, or you getting pissed? :)

    • AMEN! That is so refreshing and real to hear! Give me a second, I'm going to make sure I repost it on to Twitter, Facebook, and send out a Snapchat of the post!
  • by Anonymous Coward

    I switched from a Galaxy S7 to the Iphone X. I'm a happy customer. It's great phone, period. After all of the investments that Apple has made to build the X, there is Zero chance that Apple would return to it's old, tired design. None.

    • by Anonymous Coward

      So many people hate Apple so much that this sort of story is lapped up like Milk and Honey.
      The apple is doomed/product is crap stories come out every quarter a few weeks before their results are released. Sort of strange that.
      It is almost as if there are people who make a good living shorting APPL stock....

      Personally, I'd never go for a phone that is nothing more than a data source for Google. I had an Android phone once. Updates? what updates. When I looked at my firewall logs I saw all the data that was g

      • I agree, and would never go for a phone that is 'nothing more than a data source for Google.'

        Which is why I chose an inexpensive Samsung Galaxy phone. Samsung has a somewhat adversarial relationship with Google, which is a good thing in my book.

        One thing I would never, ever, do is buy a phone where the whole stack from the hardware to the OS came from a single sourced vendor, and with a locked single app store. That's just putting your head in the lion's mouth.

        • by Uberbah ( 647458 )

          I agree, and would never go for a phone that is 'nothing more than a data source for Google.' Which is why I chose an inexpensive Samsung Galaxy phone.

          Which if it runs Android, still makes you a product for Google's actual customers.

          One thing I would never, ever, do is buy a phone where the whole stack from the hardware to the OS came from a single sourced vendor

          So how many times have you replaced the Samsung-provided install on your Galaxy with one from Motorola or HTC?

          That's just putting your head in the

  • They're making it a collector's item. Clever.

  • I personally don't see the revolutionary feature or features that would make an iPhone Xbox desirable enough to spend computer prices on. The face ID thing is neat but it's not really new. Also, one rattionale for buying better computer hardware up front is it'll last longer. With Apple, the promise seems to be it'll be obsolete sooner because they'll slow it down. (Yes I know battery issues, but then can't they make them easier to change out if they're concerned?) I like Apple well enough, I've had iPh

  • by Dixie_Flatline ( 5077 ) <vincent@jan@goh.gmail@com> on Saturday January 20, 2018 @05:17PM (#55968993) Homepage

    Or even the summary.

    The iPhone X might be deprecated as a low cost option. That means it wonâ(TM)t be around next year for cheap. Instead, the iPhone 8 will be the cheap option and the three new phones will effectively be 3 different updated iPhone X models.

    There will still be Face ID on the new phones. They will still not have home buttons.

    If you were hoping to get an X from Apple $200 cheaper next year, this might be disappointing to you, but it doesnâ(TM)t mean much else.

  • I just picked up a Huawei Mate 9 that was being sold overstock for $249 unlocked. Great 5.9" screen, blazing fast 8-cores and 4GB ram, zero lag, three days on a charge, dual-lens rear camera setup with very decent raw files, dual-sim, SD card slot, built like a tank, Gorilla Glass 3, and desperately thin and light at the same time.

    There just isn't enough difference between "last year's overstock" and "the latest and greatest" any longer to justify paying 4x as much. When the first iPhone was launched everyo

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