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The Next iPhone Is Going To Be Unveiled On Sept. 12, Report Says (cnbc.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the new-and-improved dept.

According to CNBC, Apple will host its big iPhone 8 product launch event on September 12th. From the report: The tech giant is expected to announce a bevy of products, including two new iterative iPhone updates, possibly named the iPhone 7s and iPhone 7s Plus, in addition to a high-end iPhone 8. Apple is also reportedly gearing up to announce a new 4K Apple TV that will support sharper content than current models, and a new Apple Watch. The iPhone 8 will reportedly feature a display that takes up almost the entire front of the device, using new OLED panels that are brighter and more colorful than previous screens. Rumor has it Apple has moved the fingerprint reader to the back of the phone but will also support facial recognition thanks to a new 3-D sensor on the front of the device. Rumors have suggested the most high-end iPhone 8 will start at $1,000. Apple typically sells its new phones within a week or so of the announcement.

39 of 77 comments (clear)

  1. iPhone costs. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I own an iPhone, and I like it, but it would be nice if Apple could try to reduce costs instead of increasing them, for once. I'm getting a little tired of phone manufacturers setting prices that are equivelant to that of a mid-end laptop.

    1. Re: iPhone costs. by MachineShedFred · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The problem with that is one created of success: if you want to include a new feature on iPhone, it needs to be a feature you can manufacture 200 million of, or you just get tagged by pundits with being unable to follow through, can't execute, overly ambitious, etc.

      So, reduce the market by raising the price tag. Now they only need to manufacture 60 million of them, which may be more reasonable for a cutting-edge hardware widget of some kind until the yields come up, at which point they can drop the price to increase demand.

      I'm not saying that is what they are doing - they could just be amazingly greedy fuckers that want to bleed customer wallets of every drop they can. But it is a problem that you can't be as agile as a smaller competitor when you require the volume that Apple does, and can't multiple-source because of the lead time of building part factories. You can only manufacture completed products as fast as your supply line can get you the scarcest component.

      --
      Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
    2. Re:iPhone costs. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I own an iPhone, and I like it, but it would be nice if Apple could try to reduce costs instead of increasing them, for once. I'm getting a little tired of phone manufacturers setting prices that are equivelant to that of a mid-end laptop.

      They did that with the 5c, and still do(?) with the SE.

    3. Re: iPhone costs. by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

      Yeah I don't get it either. If you need "volume" you only need to go up to eleven.

      --
      #DeleteFacebook
    4. Re:iPhone costs. by unixisc · · Score: 2

      That would completely disrupt the business model that the iPhone was built on.

      If one recalls, when this phone was introduced, it was introduced as a luxury phone, or a phone to be had due to brand vanity, like a Prada or a Gucci. Not something for every Sally down the street, but just the jet setters. Apple's stroke of luck was in that it became a fad and caught on. Granted, they made the UI state of the art, and had a whole bunch of apps that really exposed the power of this platform. And without reducing the prices much, and focussing on margins, rather than volumes, they made themselves the most valuable company, beating the likes of Microsoft and Google!

      What's more - Apple has nothing to lose, and everything to gain, by just having a few models every few years. If one thinks that's a bad strategy, look at either Samsung, w/ a slew of galaxies, or Nokia/Microsoft, w/ a slew of Lumias. Doesn't do much for them. Pick a few, w/ some common form factors (so that supporting accessories can be common (like a screen protector b/w a 6 & 7), and run w/ that.

      All that said, IMO, phones have arrived where PCs had arrived a decade ago. When the iPhone 7 came out, I upgraded to it for a couple of reasons - needed more storage, and also, wanted Apple Pay. Now that I have a phone w/ 128GB of space, I don't anticipate upgrading it anytime (until it stops working, and then, I'll go w/ the entry level that matches or exceeds its specs that's available then)

    5. Re: iPhone costs. by Dog-Cow · · Score: 1

      It's pretty simple to understand if you are at all literate. Increasing price of a non-essential good typically has the effect of lowering demand. If this happens, Apple can meet demand while still making a lot of profit. The press doesn't care about high prices, but will bash Apple if they can't keep up with customer demand.

      All I did is paraphrase the GP.

    6. Re: iPhone costs. by Kjella · · Score: 1

      The phone market is strange in that lots and lots of people want to have the "flagship" phone and you're not allowed to have a more expensive model in your lineup. I mean it's not like every Ford is a Ford GT or every guy with a Canon has a EOS-1D X Mark II. But if Apple wants to make a $999 phone, like actually spec-wise next level not just inlaid with gold and diamonds there's panic. Apple needs to stay out in front on the premium side, if people stop saying "if money was no object, I'd get an iPhone" that's when they should not worry not "damn I want an iPhone, but that last one is bloody expensive". People have been saying that for years and Apple has been making bank on it.

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    7. Re:iPhone costs. by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      I own an iPhone, and I like it, but it would be nice if Apple could try to reduce costs instead of increasing them, for once. I'm getting a little tired of phone manufacturers setting prices that are equivelant to that of a mid-end laptop.

      Given what the iPhone is capable of and what is actually packed into it, why wouldn't it be priced the way it is? If you want a crappier device buy a crappier device. There are many on the market to choose from.

    8. Re: iPhone costs. by tlhIngan · · Score: 1

      The problem with that is one created of success: if you want to include a new feature on iPhone, it needs to be a feature you can manufacture 200 million of, or you just get tagged by pundits with being unable to follow through, can't execute, overly ambitious, etc.

      So, reduce the market by raising the price tag. Now they only need to manufacture 60 million of them, which may be more reasonable for a cutting-edge hardware widget of some kind until the yields come up, at which point they can drop the price to increase demand.

      I'm not saying that is what they are doing - they could just be amazingly greedy fuckers that want to bleed customer wallets of every drop they can. But it is a problem that you can't be as agile as a smaller competitor when you require the volume that Apple does, and can't multiple-source because of the lead time of building part factories. You can only manufacture completed products as fast as your supply line can get you the scarcest component.

      None of your reasons are actually mutually exclusive, actually. The iPhone sells easily 50+M units, and there's very few Android phones that actually scale up to that quantity (Samsung's flagships, actually come close).

      So yes,e very technology they use has to be manufacturable. It's why they haven't really gone OLED - the production isn't there (the production is all Samsung, and I bet until recently, Samsung was not able to commit to Apple to supply effectively 100% of their current production run).

      It's why every launch day gets plagued by activation failures as cell phone provider servers are inundated with activation requests. Or why iOS updates can bring down portions of the Internet. (And the bane of every IT admit out there who finds their corporate network flooded with updates).

      So yes, they are pricing it high to meet demand. Remember, this is Apple and they hate scalpers. Pricing it high removes scalpers by reducing demand and also allowing first day sales to go to people who actually will use the product. An ideal launch for Apple would be that the last iPhones were sold just as stores closed on Sunday - that they made enough so on Monday, they'll have a new shipment to sell through. Because running out on Friday afternoon means you have no product and no sales to make on Saturday and Sunday, and turning away people at the door is bad for business (they may purchase a competitor's phone instead).

      Oh yes, there's a greed element to it too - I mean, $100 to upgrade from 16GB to 32GB is pure greed. Things are better now it's 32-64-128 or even 32-128-256, but there was greed involved too.

      That's not to say there isn't demand for cheaper iPhones. The iPhone SE proved unexpectedly popular, even though the higher end configurations rivaled the price points of the other new iPhones. But more importantly, it also showed there was demand for smaller high end phones - not everyone wanted huge phones.

    9. Re:iPhone costs. by wjcofkc · · Score: 1

      In a recent interview, Tim Cook admitted that the iPhone is overpriced. He went on to say that it is still worth it.

      --
      Brought to you by Carl's Junior.
    10. Re: iPhone costs. by swb · · Score: 1

      It strikes me its more a move to recapture the people who used to buy a new iPhone when they came out and stopped because feature innovations became too few and because performance didn't really increase enough to warrant it.

      I think Apple is really hitting a wall where the device is so mature that there's not much utility left to add, other than the utility they won't add, like external memory slots and the like.

    11. Re:iPhone costs. by Green+Mountain+Bot · · Score: 1

      Absolutely agreed, though the term "mid-end" seems a bit funny to me.

    12. Re:iPhone costs. by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      iPhone sales remain very strong, and they sure aren't status symbols, nor were they a passing fad. People like them.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
  2. everyone's response is... by slashmydots · · Score: 2

    Who cares, stop using all the flash chips. I need a reasonably priced SSD!

  3. Re:Wish List by mark-t · · Score: 1

    Most of those I can understand, and many I even agree with... but "no camera"? That one's got me puzzled... what's wrong with the phone having a camera?

    --
    File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
  4. Re:Wish List by dgatwood · · Score: 1

    I'm right with you except for the "no camera". What I want is a sliding cover over the camera or a camera that flips 90 degrees so that it points into the innards of the device. There are times when I want devices to have a camera, but I want it to be entirely under my control, and I don't feel that any software can adequately provide that control.

    Well, and I couldn't care less about changing the IMSI.

    --

    Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

  5. Uhm.. by intellitech · · Score: 1

    Citations with verifiable statistics, please.

    --
    vos nescitis quicquam, nec cogitatis quia expedit nobis ut unus moriatur homo pro populo et non tota gens pereat.
    1. Re:Uhm.. by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      I was about to write exactly what you did, but then I decided to type it into google instead:
      iPhone 8 creating worldwide shortage of DRAM & NAND chips, says report

  6. Re:Wish List by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    ^ found the drug dealer

  7. Re:Wish List by irving47 · · Score: 1

    Perhaps they work for a high-ish security company/position that does not allow 'camera-phones' to be taken in to work.
    That said, though, If you work in a place like that, I have a hard time believing they'd exempt any current phone, lest they have to check/re-check every single time.

    --
    I had a sucky sig.
  8. Re:Wish List by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

    <Peter Griffin>
    What? Why?
    Okay, here we go...
    OWW!! OUCH! MY GOD THIS HURTS!!!
    Why?! WHY did you ask me to do that?
    </Peter Griffin>

    --
    #DeleteFacebook
  9. Who CARES?! by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

    Fucking iPhones... Give us decent Mac mini and MacBook Air updates, PLEASE!

    Godamn idiot CEO who thinks everyone should use a fucking iPad. Some of us need REAL computers and I'm not just talking about processing power.

    Bah, fuck it.

    What's the best low-cost OpenBSD-friendly laptop out there?

    --
    #DeleteFacebook
    1. Re:Who CARES?! by antdude · · Score: 1

      And Pros!! Frak the touchbar, etc.

      --
      Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
    2. Re:Who CARES?! by unixisc · · Score: 1

      For the next big transformation, why doesn't Apple migrate the entire Mac line to their A series of CPUs? That way, they leverage their own internal CPUs, which can go less into the underselling iPads and more into the Macs.

    3. Re:Who CARES?! by tlhIngan · · Score: 1

      Fucking iPhones... Give us decent Mac mini and MacBook Air updates, PLEASE!

      Godamn idiot CEO who thinks everyone should use a fucking iPad. Some of us need REAL computers and I'm not just talking about processing power.

      So get yourself a real computer then. Apple concentrates on what sells, and Mac Minis are a miracle they're even still on the market. Mac Mini and Mac Pros are the two WORST selling Mac products out there - and this has always been since the beginning. In fact, Apple considered dropping the Mac Mini completely because it sold so poorly. Mac Pros sell so badly they can be made reasonably in the US, presumably because it's actually uneconomic to make them in China (i.e., too small a production run).

      Macbook Airs are also on their way out, given the Macbook itself looks to be taking over that confusing part of the product line.

      Even still, Apple is only putting minimal effort in Mac products because the profit and money just isn't there. They may still sell millions of them, but at narrowing profit margins (the Apple tax is gone), especially because there's not much to innovate on the PC market these days to differentiate yourself from your PC competition.

    4. Re:Who CARES?! by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 2

      Okay then Apple should unlock macOS so that it can be used on any regular PC. Just list the supported laptops, CPUs, GPUs, chipsets, etc and let us nerds worry about compatibility.

      --
      #DeleteFacebook
  10. Re:No interest in any of those predicted products by Jarik+C-Bol · · Score: 1

    1. eeh, the 7 is not that bad, but the large model is a bit much. 2. yeah. 3. People who's parents have to much money.

    --
    I've decided to Diversify my Holdings. I've divided my cash between my left and right pockets, instead of all in one.
  11. Re:yawn by unixisc · · Score: 1

    Agree w/ this. Other than iPhone 7 and iPhone SE, what else could one need? What exactly are they adding to 7s/+ that we don't have in 7? Removing the home button? Sorry, but I like the home button in both my iPhone & iPad

  12. Re:No interest in any of those predicted products by unixisc · · Score: 1

    Fully agree! Anybody who wants an iPhone 6+/7+ should probably look at an iPad Mini - cellular. The 6/7 is fine. The 5 was good, and the right configuration would have been fine. Incidentally, how much would a 5s w/ 128GB storage cost, compared to a 6 or 7 w/ the same storage?

    The watch - I haven't seen anyone w/ it, excepting sometimes passengers on flights. However, the way to look at it is as a jewellery piece, but even then, it seems way too expensive. My sister has an Apple TV, but I have no use for it: my laptop & tablet gives me whatever media I need to consume

  13. Re:NEW OLED! by unixisc · · Score: 1

    Apple hasn't innovated since they introduced Apple Pay. Granted, few shops yet use it - usually, it's the ones w/ Verisign POS systems. But since then, nothing they've done can really be called innovative. No marks for making the iPhone 7 thinner or even waterproof - if you are in Houston and your iPhone 7 is under water, you'll probably need it replaced anyway. No points for removing the audio jack either, or giving us the audio to lightning dongle. Or the ear buds. The watch was interesting, but way overpriced, even as jewellery.

  14. Re:No interest in any of those predicted products by Dog-Cow · · Score: 1

    Just because you live in the Projects and are surrounded by dirt poor single mothers with 5 kids, does not mean that people with jobs can't and don't buy Apple products. Get out of that public library and get yourself a job.

  15. IOS 11 GA by s122604 · · Score: 1

    If the past is any indicator, this should drop a couple days afterwords

    Time to get those updated versions of your app into the store...

  16. Re:Wish List by stealth_finger · · Score: 1

    I'm right with you except for the "no camera". What I want is a sliding cover over the camera or a camera that flips 90 degrees so that it points into the innards of the device. There are times when I want devices to have a camera, but I want it to be entirely under my control, and I don't feel that any software can adequately provide that control.

    Well, and I couldn't care less about changing the IMSI.

    Tape? A case? A pack of them little circle stickers? There's plenty easy enough ways to all but disable one.

    --
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    https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
  17. Re:Wish List by dgatwood · · Score: 1

    Tape disables it, but it is hard to reenable it without it becoming semi-permanently reenabled until you get more tape. I've done that for my iPad, because I don't ever use the camera on that, but it isn't nearly as practical for my phone, which I do sometimes use for spontaneous pictures.

    And no, a case won't cover the camera, because they're all specifically designed to avoid doing that.

    --

    Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

  18. Why wait? Just watch 2016 Samsung by torkus · · Score: 1

    For details on the upcoming line of phones from apple, please review the Samsung product announcements from 2016 (sans exploding Note 7 which Apple doesn't have a competitor for anyhow) for the required information. Substitute 'Apple' for 'Samsung' and 'iPhone' for 'Galaxy' as required. You may also try substituting 'courageous' for 'innovative' but that pair will prove less accurate in reality.

    --
    You can get rich if you own a politician, but you have to be rich to buy one in the first place.
  19. Re:No interest in any of those predicted products by Jarik+C-Bol · · Score: 1

    I think the apple TV would be useful about the time I finally purchase a really nice TV, and a really comfortable couch. Until then, the laptop and Tablet are sufficient.

    --
    I've decided to Diversify my Holdings. I've divided my cash between my left and right pockets, instead of all in one.
  20. Re:Wish List by stealth_finger · · Score: 1

    And no, a case won't cover the camera, because they're all specifically designed to avoid doing that.

    Fot the most part yes, but as with anything have a look and you'll probably find something. I don't know what type of phone you have but https://eyepatchcase.com/

    --
    Wanna buy a shirt?
    https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
  21. Funny. by intellitech · · Score: 1

    Funny. Oddly enough, I did, too. Before I commented. No statistics, numbers, etc. Even just checked again. A bunch of articles with no numbers. Even if it is true, it's not like the stockpile of already-made products is going to get ripped apart to satisfy manufacturing demand.

    --
    vos nescitis quicquam, nec cogitatis quia expedit nobis ut unus moriatur homo pro populo et non tota gens pereat.
    1. Re:Funny. by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      Funny thing about stockpiles is that their presence still falls into a supply and demand equation. Stockpiles go up in price when manufacturing is unable to maintain said stockpiles. Just because companies don't share with you their inner business supply change details doesn't mean you can't infer quite a lot from the outside.