Apple Inc. (AAPL) is coming up with three new iPhones in 2019, and one of them will be an XR successor. According to a report by The Wall Street Journal, the higher-priced model will have three rear cameras while the others will have two rear cameras.
The new iPhones will include a successor to the XR model, which has reportedly been seeing slow sales that led to Apple issuing a lowered revenue forecast for its first quarter of 2019. For now, Apple will continue with LCD displays on its new range of phones but the company is looking to ditch them completely for OLED displays from 2020.
With Apple already announcing a successor to the XR, let’s go back and take a quick look at what the iPhone-maker gave us last year. In 2018, Apple brought us the iPhone XR, XS and XS Max. The XR was the least expensive model at $749. It had nearly all the same features as the XS, except for the single rear camera, and even that too was almost as good as the XS. The battery life was its most prominent feature and the price range, although high, was justifiable.
The XS came with a dual camera, had better resolution than the XR and was more durable but its battery life was not impressive enough and the high price of $999 was a bit difficult to accept. The XS Max again had the same features as the XS but was bigger and costlier. With a starting price of $1,099, the XS Max was seen as a luxury that one could do without.
Comparing the iPhone models to Google Pixel 3, Pixel is said to be better than the XR and XS for taking photos although XR scores over the Android phone for video. The Pixel 3 costs slightly more than the XR at $799.
When one compares the Pixel 3, Samsung’s Galaxy S9 and the iPhone XS in terms of features, there is nothing one can refer to as groundbreaking from Apple’s stables. The price, however, is higher for the iPhones and hard to justify because the comparisons indicate that customers can get Android phones that are almost as good and at lower prices.
Over the past few weeks, several reports have come stating that iPhone sales are slowing down although recently CEO Tim Cook dismissed the claims. A report by Nikkei Asian Review said that Apple had cut its iPhone production target by 10% and that some of the company’s suppliers have cut their revenue forecasts for the coming quarter.
It’s no secret that Apple’s iPhones are struggling in China and recent reports say that Chinese retailers are offering discounts of nearly 20% on iPhones because they are way more expensive than the phones made by leading Chinese companies. The iPhones do not have any extra special features to justify their high prices either.
At present, the newly-announced iPhones only have the triple rear camera as their prominent feature. Unless Apple has some other big surprise behind the curtains, this alone will not do. The iPhone accounts for the majority of Apple’s revenue and the company needs something really innovative to distinguish itself from the vast amount of competition surrounding it.