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Meet Ming-Chi Kuo – if you haven’t heard of him, Kuo is simply known as the worlds best Apple analyst. Working for KGI and then TF International securities, Kuo uses his insider contacts to form reports and predictions for the upcoming releases from Apple, and he’s back with a new leak.
According to the analyst, Apple has plans to overhaul its prices for the upcoming iPhone release with savings of up to $300. Kuo believes that prices for the second gen iPhone X, enlarged iPhone X Plus and ‘budget iPhone X’ will start from as low as $800USD, $900USD and $600USD respectively. As well as including and $100 worth of extras into the box, savings could total the $300USD mark – including tax. He does state that there is a variance of $100 in his estimation however.
Kuo says there is three main reasons for the price change: Firstly, he says internally Apple has expressed “concern over the negative impact of a higher price in a mature smartphone market on selling momentum” after the iPhone X failed to spark a widely expected sales supercycle, despite celebrating the range’s 10th anniversary with a radical new design.
Secondly, the last year has seen Apple develop an “improved cost structure, which is mainly attributed to assembly yield improvements of end product & 3D sensing and cost reduction of components” so it can afford to make the cuts without overly impacting profit margins.
Lastly, “increasing users of Face ID” is deemed essential by the company (all three new iPhones will have it) due to it “benefiting the promotion of the Apple service and ecosystem.” Competitors of the company are still yet to tap into the technology making the smart phones more attractive than other brands.
The combination of the three factors has forced Apple to take on a “more aggressive price policy”. Finally getting that latest technology from Apple won’t break the bank account – here’s hoping the rest of its ranges will see the same trend.
