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

Posted by EditorDavid on from the X-Tinct dept.

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.

122 of 181 comments (clear)

  1. Click bait. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    VERY misleading title.

  2. Apple is dying by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

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

    1. Re:Apple is dying by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      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.

    2. Re:Apple is dying by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

      And if you own apples, don't forget to eat them before they go bad.

      --
      #DeleteFacebook
    3. Re:Apple is dying by Dr.+Evil · · Score: 2

      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/

    4. Re:Apple is dying by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 1

      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.

    5. Re:Apple is dying by alvinrod · · Score: 1

      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.

    6. Re:Apple is dying by known_coward_69 · · Score: 1

      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 Tim Cook did was fire the guy who ran IOS and didn't improve it.

      If jobs was still around IOS would be some simple toy like he always liked and people would be laughing about it. Right after he gave up apple was when they were losing market share to android and it was tim cook who got it back in the big markets like the USA

    7. Re:Apple is dying by ArmoredDragon · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The apple store in that picture would easily pass as a very cultish church. All you have to do is replace the apple logo with a church of scientology logo.

    8. Re:Apple is dying by charliemerritt03 · · Score: 1

      Dying is too harsh - downgrading, downsizing. ...sent from my $20 Android

    9. Re:Apple is dying by Bing+Tsher+E · · Score: 1

      When your 'standing' is based on being a big gassed up balloon, if you deflate (or 'pop') you don't deflate to 'second largest.'

      The creditors swarm and things quickly get ugly.

    10. Re:Apple is dying by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      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.

    11. Re: Apple is dying by Bing+Tsher+E · · Score: 1

      After the crash, they can make that big round building into a large flea market, or a center for dispensing social aid.

      "I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one."

    12. Re:Apple is dying by null+etc. · · Score: 1

      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

    13. Re:Apple is dying by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      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.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    14. Re: Apple is dying by Bing+Tsher+E · · Score: 1

      The bigger they are, the harder they fall.

  3. As long as... by jawtheshark · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.

    --
    Ahhh...the great dumpster continuum. Many a free computer will be found there. -- sowth (748135)
    1. Re:As long as... by vux984 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      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.

    2. Re:As long as... by jawtheshark · · Score: 1

      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.

      --
      Ahhh...the great dumpster continuum. Many a free computer will be found there. -- sowth (748135)
    3. Re: As long as... by jawtheshark · · Score: 1

      Yup... that must be it :-)

      --
      Ahhh...the great dumpster continuum. Many a free computer will be found there. -- sowth (748135)
    4. Re: As long as... by Wycliffe · · Score: 1

      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.

    5. Re: As long as... by jawtheshark · · Score: 1

      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.

      --
      Ahhh...the great dumpster continuum. Many a free computer will be found there. -- sowth (748135)
    6. Re:As long as... by alvinrod · · Score: 1

      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 always comfortable. I think that 4.3" would be a sweet spot for the average person, but for whatever reason it isn't a popular size. The last major device at that size that felt like it was given flagship treatment that I'm aware of was the Moto E (back when Google still owned Motorola), but the later generations had the size increased.

      If Apple released a new SE with smaller bezels and a 4.3" screen I'd probably buy that in a heartbeat. I guess I don't watch movies or stuff like that where a bigger screen matters, so the improved hand fit and pocketability are more important.

    7. Re:As long as... by GNious · · Score: 1

      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)

    8. Re:As long as... by jawtheshark · · Score: 1

      You have cheap ears ;-)

      --
      Ahhh...the great dumpster continuum. Many a free computer will be found there. -- sowth (748135)
    9. Re: As long as... by Brockmire · · Score: 4, Interesting

      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.

    10. Re:As long as... by tlhIngan · · Score: 1

      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 the right size. If you can hold it in one hand, it's too small. If you require a third hand, bingo, you got the best phone out there.

      Apparently size over practicality. Even if it requires two hands to hold it so you can make a phone call (using voice assist, because with two hands holding the phone, there are no spare digits that can reach the numbers).

      And yes, they flash the phone everywhere. It is a status symbol, and the iPhone X unfortunately is not "bling-y" enough.

    11. Re:As long as... by cthulhu11 · · Score: 1

      I figure a thin phone enables the use of a protective case without becoming awkwardly thick. The GP sounds to me as though he didn't have a case on his phone.

  4. This is not even planned obsolescence anymore by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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.

    1. Re:This is not even planned obsolescence anymore by FudRucker · · Score: 1

      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

      --
      Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
    2. Re:This is not even planned obsolescence anymore by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

      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.

      --
      #DeleteFacebook
    3. Re:This is not even planned obsolescence anymore by mschwanke97402 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      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.

    4. Re:This is not even planned obsolescence anymore by mspohr · · Score: 2

      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.

      --
      I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
    5. Re:This is not even planned obsolescence anymore by EvilSS · · Score: 1

      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=37872881

      --
      I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
    6. Re:This is not even planned obsolescence anymore by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      We’re on the Apple side of the divide, and we’ve been going with refurbished iPhones for the past couple years. I haven’t heard any complaints from the family, and my 6S is plenty fast.

      For the vast majority of people, we’re at the point technology-wise where even a three year old phone model has more than enough power to do what they want a phone to do. It’s silly to pay such a steep premium just for “the new shiny”, whether it’s an iPhone, Nexus, or whatever.

  5. never owned an iphone by FudRucker · · Score: 2, Insightful

    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

    --
    Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
    1. Re:never owned an iphone by thegarbz · · Score: 5, Insightful

      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.

    2. Re:never owned an iphone by Templer421 · · Score: 1

      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.

    3. Re:never owned an iphone by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      a fist full of spare batteries

      That’s my favorite Clint Eastwood movie!

    4. Re:never owned an iphone by jon3k · · Score: 2

      and considering this iphone X debacle

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

    5. Re:never owned an iphone by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      I hate myself for laughing at that.

  6. iPhone 8 by richman555 · · Score: 1

    I am loving my iPhone 8 I purchased in December. That is really the best iPhone out right now!

  7. The iPhone X is a terrible phone by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

    1. Re:The iPhone X is a terrible phone by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      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 replacements come out.

      Most like the 8 will take that spot, and there's also rumors of an updated SE that will also be the lower cost option.

    2. Re:The iPhone X is a terrible phone by gmb61 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      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.

    3. Re:The iPhone X is a terrible phone by jareth-0205 · · Score: 1

      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.

    4. Re:The iPhone X is a terrible phone by dk20 · · Score: 4, Informative

      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...

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

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

      try using google..

    5. Re:The iPhone X is a terrible phone by aaarrrgggh · · Score: 2

      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 there is a time and place for everything.

    6. Re:The iPhone X is a terrible phone by gmb61 · · Score: 1, Troll

      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...

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

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

      try using google..

      And none of your examples demonstrate the AC's specific claim that a photograph can unlock Face ID. So please, by all means, go back to Google and find evidence of that. Once again, I'll wait.

    7. Re:The iPhone X is a terrible phone by dk20 · · Score: 2

      what, a 3d printed face mask isnt enought? https://www.theverge.com/2017/...

    8. Re:The iPhone X is a terrible phone by gmb61 · · Score: 1

      what, a 3d printed face mask isnt enought? https://www.theverge.com/2017/...

      Of course it's not enough, and not even close to being as trivially easy as a photograph. If somebody has the resources and motivation to obtain a 3D scan of a person's face and then 3D print a mask, do you really think a fingerprint scanner would be any more secure against such a person?

    9. Re:The iPhone X is a terrible phone by Dixie_Flatline · · Score: 1

      I've tried using google to find this and there's still nothing. 'FaceID folded photograph' should bring up a hit, and it doesn't. If it were actually a real story, Google would be able to surface it using those search terms immediately.

      So basically, no.

    10. Re:The iPhone X is a terrible phone by Dixie_Flatline · · Score: 1

      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.

  8. I'm sorry, but ... by Qbertino · · Score: 4, Insightful

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

    --
    We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
    1. Re:I'm sorry, but ... by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      "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.

  9. Re:Bullshit by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 2

    Look at the iPod shuffle 2nd generation, 3rd generation and 4th generation.
    They clearly went back to the basic design of the 2nd generation because the 3rd generation was bad.

    They discontinued the "puck" mouse and never done the same mistake again.

    They removed the "scrollwheel" volume controller in QuickTime and went back to a regular slider in subsequent versions.

    Those are the only three examples I can think of right now.

    --
    #DeleteFacebook
  10. Face Recognition by fermion · · Score: 1
    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 face recognition, maybe they don't. But I think it will be a new name to differentiate from any bad press the face recognition has gotten.

    Apple takes risks to innovate. Apple customers sometimes choose to participate in those risks. It is not a catastrophe that sometimes some products are not as popular as Apple might hope, or do not meet customer needs. What that typically means is that Apple users are not hampered with bloated software that needs to support ancient technology. One problem that exists right now is that apple has so many different IOS products, given that a new one is made every year, that is significantly different, that we end up with buggy software. One thing that Apple is bad at, unlike MS, is supported a large number of devices at once.

    --
    "She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
    1. Re:Face Recognition by kencurry · · Score: 1

      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 that I would feel like a dork staring at my phone to pay. Once you get used to it, a quick wrist flip is all you need

      So, by my experience Face ID is ready for prime time.

      --
      sigs are for losers (except to point out that sigs are for losers)
    2. Re:Face Recognition by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      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 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.

      And finally to all the idiots saying the X is a disaster, shut the fuck up and go back to your fragmented Android ecosystem and leave us iPhone users the hell alone already. You have no business commenting on shit you know absolutely nothing about.

    3. Re:Face Recognition by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 1

      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?

      --
      Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
  11. Re:No one wants a new formfactor. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Your comment:

      "The iPhone works well and thereâ(TM)s ecosystems built up that work. People donâ(TM)t want the form factor to change. Even the iPhone 7 headphone removal is still causing holdouts in upgrades from 6s users."

    Can I assume your post is from your iPhone? (TM)

  12. Re:Hahahah by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 4, Informative

    BGR, an Android boy-Army? LOL - BGR is about the biggest Apple enthusiast out there!

    --
    Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
  13. Misleading title is misleading. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    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 there's no replacement for it. There's also rumor of an SE coming out.

    The replacements for the X are still slated to have FaceID (a possibly updated version) and a notch (though maybe smaller).

    I would prefer to have a TouchID option on newer phones, and hopeful that Apple keeps that as an option as it seems FaceID is here for the long run.

  14. In other words by sphealey · · Score: 1

    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!

  15. iPhone X facial recognition authentication: by Narcocide · · Score: 2

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

  16. Good by Misagon · · Score: 1, Interesting

    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.

    --
    "We mustn't be caught by surprise by our own advancing technology" -- Aldous Huxley
    1. Re:Good by Sebby · · Score: 3, Funny

      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? :)

      --

      AC comments get piped to /dev/null
    2. Re:Good by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 1

      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!

      --
      Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
  17. Who makes this stuff up? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    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.

    1. Re:Who makes this stuff up? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      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 going to Google owned IP Addresses. Crushed the phone and bought an iPhone. It does not to that sort of slurping.
      I'd better buy an new one soon as Apple is doomed (sic)

    2. Re:Who makes this stuff up? by Bing+Tsher+E · · Score: 2

      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.

    3. Re:Who makes this stuff up? by Uberbah · · Score: 1

      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 lion's mouth.

      This isn't Microsoft, where the company randomly kills off one of its ecosystems, leaving its customers high and dry.

    4. Re:Who makes this stuff up? by shilly · · Score: 1

      Why would Apple need to do this? The company monetises *devices*, not data

    5. Re:Who makes this stuff up? by Bing+Tsher+E · · Score: 1

      It isn't 2009 any longer. The 'Google's actual customers' meme is old and worn out. We already know that.

      And Apple literally kill off old versions of their hardware with non-reversible 'last upgrades' and have done so consistently with their phone hardware for years.

      Don't deflect to Microsoft. If you choose to live in the Apple Company Town, that's fine. But don't act like we'll respect your 'wise choice' to do so.

    6. Re:Who makes this stuff up? by Uberbah · · Score: 1

      The 'Google's actual customers' meme is old and worn out. We already know that.

      Self awareness? Apple's "walled garden" is even more old and worn out, but that didn't stop you from complaining about it.

      And Apple literally kill off old versions of their hardware with non-reversible 'last upgrades' and have done so consistently with their phone hardware for years.

      Insert-Mark-Hamill-picture-here. Every word in that sentence is false.

      Don't deflect to Microsoft.

      You mean don't point out that these problems/standards only apply when Apple is involved. You own any game consoles? Blue Ray players? How about a car with integrated navigation/apps/entertainment system.

      Such is the power of the Hatorade Distortion Field.

    7. Re:Who makes this stuff up? by Uberbah · · Score: 1

      Apple have been way more evil than Microsoft since Woz got shafted

      Suuure they are. Bought any new Plays4Sure music for your Zune lately? How you liking the forced OS updates? Which did you like more - the plan to allow banning of secondhand sales of XBox games, or the keylogger built into Windows 10?

    8. Re:Who makes this stuff up? by Bing+Tsher+E · · Score: 1

      The big lie. You say so many ridiculous things in your reply that the numerous untruths are hidden in the mess.

      Only cult members spend their time labeling non-cult members 'haters.'

      So go fiddle around with your eMeter, or your iPod or whatever clever contraption you feel good about fiddling around with.

    9. Re:Who makes this stuff up? by Bing+Tsher+E · · Score: 1

      I tried to install an Apple OS on one of my machines, but they are terrible with driver support. They support about 1/1000th of the hardware that the other more open OSes (Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, even BeOS) support.

      So are you the new Apple shill? Or did somebody sell their old account to an Apple PR agent?

    10. Re:Who makes this stuff up? by Uberbah · · Score: 1

      I tried to install an Apple OS on one of my machines, but they are terrible with driver support. They support about 1/1000th of the hardware that the other more open OSes (Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, even BeOS) support.

      Attempt at sarcasm is noted. So how is Apple evil for not publishing their OS for use on other people's hardware? You do know that was the subject at hand, yes?

      So are you the new Apple shill? Or did somebody sell their old account to an Apple PR agent?

      You should cut back on the hatorade...it makes you stupid. You sound like the political partisans who call you an Obamabot if you say he actually was born in Hawaii, or that you're a MAGA hat wearing Trump voter if you're skeptical of Russiagate.

      The big lie. You say so many ridiculous things in your reply that the numerous untruths are hidden in the mess. Only cult members spend their time labeling non-cult members 'haters. So go fiddle around with your eMeter, or blah blah blah blather blather blah blah

      See above.

    11. Re:Who makes this stuff up? by Bing+Tsher+E · · Score: 1

      How much do they pay you, then?

  18. Re:Bullshit by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 1

    The main "mistake" with the iPhone X is the price. As Apple is now realizing, not many people are willing to pay $1000 for a phone. They don't have to discontinue it to fix that.

  19. Re:And the concensus is... by dgatwood · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The thing is, as an X owner and a longtime Apple watcher, I can tell you exactly how this will play out — because this isn't the first time Apple has revised their plans when the customer base failed to see the value in a product line. One other relatively recent example is the Mac Pro — aka, the "trash can." Yeah... it was pretty universally hated for a lot of reasons, and Apple has acknowledged that it's on the chopping block. We're still waiting to see the outcome of that one.

    The Mac Pro wasn't universally hated. A certain subset of pro users like it a lot — the ones who don't have any significant storage requirements and need really, really quiet machines. A different subset hate it — the ones who now have to install a separate RAID enclosure right beside their machine because they can't stick up to 240 TB of SSDs in each one like you can with the previous generation (or, more realistically, up to 48 TB of spinning rust), and are instead stuck with the paltry 1 TB that Apple graciously allows you to buy. (You can get more storage even in their laptops now, which is beyond sad.)

    The bigger problem with the Mac Pro, of course, is that it is too small to accommodate subsequent generations of twelve-core CPUs and high-end GPUs, so they can't upgrade it to the current tech without significantly redesigning it. Their insatiable lust for thinness/compactness and their bizarre infatuation with proprietary SSD-only storage slots finally bit them in the a**. And it's good that they're having to rethink things. Maybe next time, they'll pay more attention to their target audience saying, "Here are our minimum requirements" before they design things, rather than just saying, "You'll adapt to what we sell," because at some point, their customers will get tired of doing that.

    --

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

  20. Re: No one wants a new formfactor. by Bing+Tsher+E · · Score: 1

    Since we are talking about Apple, you might want to call it slashdot's 'IBM' engine*.

    (* Mac zealots from ye olden times referred to any system that ran Windows or MS-DOS as 'IBM' and continued to do so long after IBM had abandoned the PC-DOS market. The Mac zealot army has always seen a need to face a single, large, monolithic target as their opponent, even though they really are up against all of 'the rest of us' on our open platforms)

  21. Clever! by bazorg · · Score: 1

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

  22. Re:Bullshit by modmans2ndcoming · · Score: 1

    Face recognition with no finger print sensor is a mistake too....no reason to retain this pile of shit.

  23. Re:Bullshit by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 1

    FaceID is optional.
    If you don't like it, don't enable it.

  24. Re: Bullshit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Android is the worst operating system for a phone, full of pornographic ads in children games!

  25. Why pay 1k for evolutionary rather than revolution by Lohrno · · Score: 1

    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 iPhones before, but I am failing to see the appeal now... Everything the iPhone X does can be found in a competitors for cheaper. It's not like they hold a design victory still either.

  26. iPhone X opposite of a debacle - Revelation by SuperKendall · · Score: 2, Interesting

    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 that and the replacement of front buttons with gestures it is that much of a leap in UX improvement over even the best touch sensors. The OLED screen is like a distant second in comparison and is actually a mixed bag compared to a great LCD. It is amazing to think this is only the first version to FaceID, think of how the first touch sensors were - FaceID is so much more reliable than they were.

    The thought that Apple would cancel the iPhone X is laughable; the only thing to wonder about is when does the rest of the line will get FaceID and join us in the future.

    Those of you who do not have one, may find this hyperbolic... but someday you will understand.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re: iPhone X opposite of a debacle - Revelation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Thug or government official at gunpoint "give us your phone"

      You hand it over.

      The hostile party asks you to put your password in, wrestles you to put your finger on the sensor...

      Or simply turns the phone towards your face before you can even react.

      And yes, we know you can disable it, but so do they.

      Which if these scenarios do you prefer?

    2. Re: iPhone X opposite of a debacle - Revelation by aaarrrgggh · · Score: 1

      Power off first— not that hard.

      I don’t trust FaceID yet or my banking passwords, but for locking and unlocking the phone it is great— a transparent means of unlocking vs a more conscious move. Apple seems to have made a few tweaks that addressed my edge case issues on the phone, and I have to agree with GP: the X is the future. I also happen to think they sold many more than the pessimists and it is a blockbuster.

    3. Re:iPhone X opposite of a debacle - Revelation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      FaceID assumes (and is needy, WANTS to see everything) the purpose of the phone or screen is to look at it. So often, I want to turn it on without it pointing at me. For example, you may be driving on a highway and for some reason it locks, now what do you do? The finger is much easier, you don't need to look at the screen. This is just ONE example. Also, it's very easy to fake a face you KNOW, but not so easy to fake a finger you DON'T KNOW. There are AI algorithms that will create a 3D model out of several pictures of you.

    4. Re:iPhone X opposite of a debacle - Revelation by spire3661 · · Score: 1

      >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...

      --
      Good-bye
  27. Re:Bullshit by EvilSS · · Score: 5, Insightful

    FaceID is optional. If you don't like it, don't enable it.

    I don't think the problem is that people don't want to use it. I think the problem is that people just like the fingerprint sensor more and opted for the lower priced 8 with it than going for the more expensive X that lacks it.

    --
    I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
  28. Re:Bullshit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Price. Shitty notch out of the top design. FaceID gimmick feature that actually lowers security (google for children unlocking phones -- algorithm loves to default to success rather than failure, which his exactly what one wants in an authentication situation right?), shitty iOS design updates (turning off wireless doesn't actually turn it off, so you can still be track for your 'betterment', and it auto turns back on anyway), amongst tons of other issues.

  29. Re:Bullshit by Bing+Tsher+E · · Score: 1

    They removed the fingerprint sensor. So if you opt out of Face ID you opt out of the Iphone X, or you have to use keycode locking.

  30. Re:Bullshit by Subm · · Score: 1

    > Those are the only three examples I can think of right now.

    They rehired Steve Jobs.

  31. Re:Hahahah by Bing+Tsher+E · · Score: 1

    I think AppleInsider is where the most smarmy Apple fans hang out. They have a cadre mentality and a well formed routine for identifying, isolating and removing non-Apple zealots from their forum.

  32. Re: Bullshit by Brockmire · · Score: 1

    You want your kid occupied, no?

  33. Re: Bullshit by Brockmire · · Score: 1

    I wish reverting smart quotes was number 4.

  34. Re: No one wants a new formfactor. by Brockmire · · Score: 1

    Cool story, bro.

  35. The only reason to pay a premium by rsilvergun · · Score: 1

    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.

    --
    Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
  36. I think Jobs would have the same problem by rsilvergun · · Score: 1

    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.

    --
    Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
  37. Re:They already have. by goose-incarnated · · Score: 1

    I can attest to that. My 180EUR phone is an 8-core, 3GB RAM, 64GB internal storage, pretty much vanilla Android 7 (updates provided), 4500mAh 3-days-on-one-charge-with-permanent-wifi-on battery, *actual* IP-68 ruggedness beast, that can connect to my wifi from down the street, survives being thrown against walls and put through entire washing machine cycles, has an outstanding build quality, does 2 SIM *plus* an SD card, is completely unbrickable (yes, including wrecking the bootloader so it won't turn on ... you can upload new firmware anyway), has replacement batteries available on e-bay, and a complete disassembly and reassembly video on YouTube, *posted by the manufacturer*. Also it looks awesome, and not like a boring featureless slab/blade. You literally get screwdrivers with he thing!

    What phone is this? And do you have an Amazon link?

    --
    I'm a minority race. Save your vitriol for white people.
  38. Re:Bullshit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Love how Tim Cook is ok with face scanning but not for his nephew to use social media. Who can make sense of this man's ideologies.

  39. If only people would read the article by Dixie_Flatline · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

  40. Re: Bullshit by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 3, Funny

    Whatâ(TM)s wrong with smart quotes?

    --
    #DeleteFacebook
  41. Re:Bullshit by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

    Google made the same mistake with the Pixel. From where I sit, indistinguishable from Apple envy. Note the guy on the stage dressed head to toe in Steve Jobs black.

    --
    When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
  42. Re:And the concensus is... by dgatwood · · Score: 1

    Yes and no. I'm of two minds on it. I actually rather like the Mac Pro I use at work (for writing iOS apps). The twelve-core monstrosity eats compiling jobs like a small child eats cotton candy.

    On the flip side, I would never buy one for my own personal recording studio and video editing purposes, because the storage capacity doesn't cut it, and if I have to deal with something woefully inadequate, it might as well be the laptop that I already have. I seriously considered buying one when they first came out, but even if I looked past its inability to be rack mounted, by that time it came out, a terabyte was already absurdly tiny for me, and that's what saved me ten grand, which I left in AAPL, and is now 30 grand.

    So it works really well for a very narrow definition of "Pro", which basically turns out to be Apple software engineers and third-party Mac and iOS developers. For everyone else, it started out with ludicrously insufficient storage, and then never improved. They designed for themselves instead of for their customers, and that's why the product failed. For what it does well, it is amazing. For what it doesn't do well, it is absolutely terrible.

    If they brought back the cheese grater today, I'd probably buy one. I'll wait and see what their replacement looks like, but I'm not holding my breath. I don't think their hardware design team could stomach adding back SATA bays, and I don't think I'll ever buy a desktop computer that doesn't have several of them. (I mean, if they'll add a 60 TB SSD for under a grand, sure, but otherwise, no.)

    --

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

  43. Re:Bullshit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I always thought it would have been cool to have Steve Jobs preserved and encased in a glass coffin, and displayed in the lobby of Apple corporate headquarters, something like Lenin's tomb in Moscow.

    Both Lenin and Jobs have a cult following among the "true believers". And the worshipful adoration of Jobs by the Apple cult could use the shrine as a focal point for its Jonestown-like devotion.

  44. I donâ(TM)t get the people who are still hard by Hentai007 · · Score: 1

    They are the wealthiest and one of the most powerful companies on earth, not the plucky underdog to Microsoftâ(TM)s big brother...

    itâ(TM)s like being a die hard Exxon fan... I really donâ(TM)t get the insane level of loyalty Apple gets, Itâ(TM)s creepy.

  45. Re: I donâ(TM)t get the people who are still by Hentai007 · · Score: 1

    Posted from my iPhone of course

  46. Re:And the concensus is... by Jesus_666 · · Score: 1

    So it works really well for a very narrow definition of "Pro", which basically turns out to be Apple software engineers and third-party Mac and iOS developers.

    And a whole bunch of those don't need a Mac Pro in the first place. For instance, the company I work for offers a Xamarin-based app. Our iOS build server is an older Mac mini, which is still plenty fast for our purposes - despite the fact that building a Xamarin app for iOS is extremely slow due to architectural decisions by Apple. Unless you regularly need to build something really big you're probably going to get away with something less expensive than a Mac Pro.

    The ashtray is really a completely different beast than the cheese grater. It's more akin to a souped up Mac mini. Cool if you need a silent and beefy desktop computer; less cool if you need a crazy powerful workstation.

    And I agree - the cheese grater gave you space for expansion, relied on standardized internal interfaces for good interoperability and had tons of ports. Those are all things Apple don't like in their hardware these days.

    --
    USE HOT GRITS WITH STATUE OF NATALIE PORTMAN (NAKED AND PETRIFIED)
  47. It's the price. by aussersterne · · Score: 1

    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 everyone laughed at $499 for a phone, but it was the only game in town doing what it was doing. But now, Apple is trying to get people to pay twice that much for phones that are at best 5-15% better than its competitors who are priced at a fraction of the cost.

    The actual apps are all the same for the most part, and for most use cases. It's all a bunch of third-party SaaS and e-commerce. The only difference is imperceptible screen differences (That one has more PPI than the human eye can detect and this other one has two times again as many pixels! Wooo?) and imperceptible processor differences (That one starts Chrome in 0.8 seconds and this other one in 0.7 seconds! Wooo?)

    They're going to have to price more in line with the market or come out with something that is "revolutionary" once again (actually is, not just claims to be) if they're going to drive sales at the levels they want.

    --
    STOP . AMERICA . NOW
  48. Re:Bullshit by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

    The main "mistake" with the iPhone X is the price. As Apple is now realizing, not many people are willing to pay $1000 for a phone. They don't have to discontinue it to fix that.

    Galaxy Note 8 is $949 for the same amount of storage.

    Now what, Hater?

  49. Re:Bullshit by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

    As many of us have known for many years, the iPhone is a cheaply made, poorly designed, and vastly overpriced steaming turd! Android phones that are far superior to the iPhone can be bought for $100 to $150! Anyone who has paid more than that for a "smart" phone is an idiot that got ripped off big time!!

    So what does that make the GN8 owners who paid $949 for their kit?

  50. Re:Bullshit by yabos · · Score: 1

    It's only an outrageous price if it's an Apple phone

  51. Re: Bullshit by Monster_user · · Score: 1

    Checking to see if I have successfully disabled that feature in my iPhone.

    Don't fail me now.

  52. Re:I see. by shmlco · · Score: 1

    The news was actually that when Apple comes out with the NEXT generation of iPhone X and iPhone X Plus, they'll probably stop production of this current generation. There's still has a finite supply of OLED panels, and that supply needs to feed new phones and not old ones.

    --
    Any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.
  53. Re:Bullshit by shmlco · · Score: 1

    The average phone upgrade cycle used to be 18 months (factoring repairs), now it's 24. Which means that most people skip at least one generation, and maybe two.

    With that in mind, spending an extra couple of hundred dollars for something you'll own for two or three years isn't really that absurd. (Over three years the additional cost is just $5/mo, $8/mo over two.)

    --
    Any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.
  54. Re: Bullshit by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

    [x] success
    [_] failure

    --
    #DeleteFacebook
  55. Re: No one wants a new formfactor. by Bing+Tsher+E · · Score: 1

    Anybody who has a Windows NT 3.51 install CD-ROM has the installer for Power PC, MIPS, Alpha, and the Intel x86 processor. Because it's a multi-platform CD-ROM. My NT 3.51 CD is a Compaq OEM version, and even it supports all the platforms NT was ported to at the time.

    I have used it to install Windows NT on an IBM PreP box, as well as an Alpha box. I am one of the very few who has run Windows on Power PC. It was very underwhelming, because there's zero third party software. I am pretty sure there isn't even a commonly available compiler for Windows NT/PPC so you can roll your own software.