Apple Rumored To Cut iPhone X Price To Reinvigorate Sales

Is the iPhone X too expensive for you? Rumored price cut may change that

By Andy Boxall December 28, 2017

The most expensive iPhone yet may become slightly cheaper next year, if new rumors are to be believed — potentially enticing more people to buy an iPhone X. The reason? Apple isn’t selling enough of them in the United States, Singapore, Taiwan, and other important markets.

This comes from a DigiTimes report, a website known for its hit-or-miss rumor coverage, so don’t take any future price cut as certain. But it follows reports that Apple plans to lower its iPhone X orders for the first three months of 2018 due to an apparent lack of demand. The best way to drum up new business? Cut the price.

Analysts at JL Warren Capital blamed “weak demand because of the iPhone X’s high price point,” Bloomberg reported, and expect shipments to fall from 30 million over the last three months to 25 million in the first three months of 2018. Other analysts estimate far higher sales numbers — and greater drops for the iPhone X next year.

The iPhone X starts at $1,000, but the flagship phone can cost a lot more depending on the amount of storage space it contains. How much will Apple cut the price? The DigiTimes rumor doesn’t go into any detail, and should it come to pass, we shouldn’t expect the iPhone X to suddenly challenge the OnePlus 5T, which retails for about $500. The report’s wording suggests the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus — which suffered from poor sales due to anticipation for the iPhone X — may also fall in price.

Apple isn’t averse to dropping the price of an iPhone, but mostly it does so when a new model is about to come out or has just been released. If the outgoing iPhone is still current in Apple’s range, then a $100 price drop isn’t uncommon. Cutting the price on a current phone just a few months after release is more unusual; but it did pull a similar trick to reinvigorate iPad sales in 2017.

The iPad cuts may give us a clue about how much Apple could reduce the iPhone X by, and they range from $50 to $100. Would you consider buying a $950 iPhone X, after deciding a $1,000 iPhone X was too much? For now, no such price drop is official, and the rumor’s source isn’t always reliable; but it’s intriguing due to how it fits in with analyst concerns about the iPhone X’s overall sales success.

Editors' Recommendations