Apple's New Strategy: Sell Pricier iPhones First (wsj.com)

The staggered release gives the company a month to sell higher-end models without cheaper competition from itself. WSJ: This year, according to people familiar with Apple's production plans, the company prioritized production of its two pricier OLED models, the iPhone XS and XS Max, whose prices start at about $1,000. Both will hit stores Friday, followed five weeks later by the least expensive new model, the XR, which has an LCD screen and a starting price of $749. The staggered release gives Apple a month to sell the higher-end models without cheaper competition from itself. It also simplifies logistics and retail demands and could strengthen Apple's ability to forecast sales and production of all three models through the Christmas holidays, analysts and supply chain experts said. "It's sort of a Dutch auction," said Josh Lowitz, co-founder of research firm Consumer Intelligence Research Partners, referring to the practice of starting with a high asking price, then lowering it until a buyer accepts. "The people who are most committed will pay to get early access. Then you get to the people who are making a choice and may settle for the $750 phone. This could become the new normal."

Comments

It's more about skimming the cream

[JoeyRox]

This is a standard marketing strategy and not unique to Apple. You charge more for people who are willing to pay more (early adopters), then phase in a lower ASP as the demand curve shifts toward more typical mid and late stream adopters.

It seems like a great idea

[SuperKendall]

I don't really see a downside here, to me it seems like an excellent approach - by selling the top end models first, you are treating them as something more special.

Those who want to wait for the slightly lower priced Xr won't mind a delay much, and they can judge if it's worth spending more to have a nicer model earlier.

Personally I am really curious to see both the Xr and Xs Max side by side, to compare screens... I don't plan to get a phone update this year but I think seeing those two would be a really good way to contrast a great OLED against a great LCD screen. Some have said OLED screens do not appear to be quite as sharp and I think I can see what they are talking about, but the two latest larger models should present the best side by side comparison to really tell.

$1000 phones are surreal.

[Anonymous Coward]

Any person that pays $1000 for a phone, Apple or not, is bat shit crazy, or bat shit rich.

That phones does not make miracles people!!! Wake up...

A $200 phone does 97% of what an $1000 phone can do.

Smaller phones?

[93 Escort Wagon]

Every company seems to be in love with big phones. Can anyone recommend an Android phone with a 4” (or thereabouts) screen? My wife currently has an iPhone SE, and she’s adamant that she doesn’t want a phone larger than that.

I’m going to keep using my 6S for as long as I practically can... but then I’ll probably move on from Apple too. Smartphones are basically commodities at this point... paying the ludicrous premium for any of these companies’ flagship phones is not something I’m willing to do.

The why not buy an iPhone?

[SuperKendall]

I'm a maker not a taker.

If you were really a maker you would seek great tools.

I've got no use for a spying

Apple does not spy. They do not need to as they sell hardware, not you.

, expensive

Even $1k for a powerful computing device you keep at your side for three+ years is not expensive.

closed-source

Sigh.

sealed battery

All batteries are sealed, or else there would be quite a mess.

Or did you mean you could remove the battery? Funny, you claim to be a "Maker" and yet you are afraid to open a phone case to change a battery manually (which you'd only have to do every 2-3 years)??

Or did you mean you want a second battery, again if you were actually a maker you'd appreciate the flexibility of carrying around an external battery that could recharge any number of different USB devices instead of some lame proprietary internal battery that you have to throw away with your phone.

crippled computing device with no keyboard.

In what way crippled? And rather than "no keyboard" is has an infinite number of keyboards.

If you really have to have a physical keyboard for a phone then why not get one? That's the nice thing about buying popular hardware, is that you can expand it almost in whatever way you like.

Re:The why not buy an iPhone?

[SuperKendall]

Appleopen sources Xnu, the kernel. They open source Webkit, they open source Swift, they open source LLVM...

It's not just one or two things, it's almost everything except for Springboard (the iOS app launcher).

No it's not all open source. But it's also not even mostly closed source, so it's wrong to claim that it's a closed-source system when so much of it is open.