Apple Shifts XR Production to Older iPhones

AlphaAtlas

AlphaAtlas

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A report by Nikkei Asian Review suggests that Apple's $749 "budget" iPhone XR is not as popular as expected. A "source familiar with the situation" said "For the Foxconn side, it first prepared nearly 60 assembly lines for Apple's XR model, but recently uses only around 45 production lines as its top customer said it does not need to manufacture that many by now." Apple also told another manufacturer to "stand by for rush orders," while noting that it didn't expect to place any more iPhone XR orders. Apparently, not everyone is happy with Apple's rising prices, and they're turning to older, cheaper alternatives from the company.

Yet the California-based tech company instead is requesting more of the older iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus models, which are up to 20% cheaper than the XR's starting price of $749. "Suppliers of iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus are getting a combined order of around 5 million more units," one source said. Apple previously planned 20 million units for the older iPhone models this quarter, but raised the figure to 25 million units, the individual said.
 
Its "top" customer for the iPhone XR? Wouldnt the only customer for that be Apple?
 
Well I am holding off on upgrading my iPhone 6S Plus, it still works fine and with iOS 12.1 it runs better than ever.
 
its supposed to be better at 750 than the 800-1200$ android phones (battery is 30% higher or more longer lasting than pixel 3), however I think it is bad branding. Name everything xyz and the average customer gets lost in the branding. They are excited for iphone 9, 10 etc
 
Count me included in the group of users priced out of ownership. Cant justify that much for a phone when there are fantastic alternatives for hundreds cheaper. Currently have a 7 and holding onto it for another year.
 
They need to just keep going with iPhone SE production really. Small form factor and just keep the components somewhat updated.

People like my parents are perfectly happy with the SE. Giant screens don’t interest them, they just need a phone to be a phone.
 
I'm looking to upgrade to another iPhone from an iPhone 6s for the missus. It still runs run fine but needs more capacity as its only a 16GB phone. Would love the latest and greatest but we don't need to have it and not at $750, even for the budget one, so I've just been browsing for used a iphone 7 128GB at around $250-$300. It's a little older phone but should be capable enough for her. Even then, I still find it hard to fork over $300 for a two year old phone.
 
Jovian said:
Count me included in the group of users priced out of ownership. Cant justify that much for a phone when there are fantastic alternatives for hundreds cheaper. Currently have a 7 and holding onto it for another year.
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But can you justify the price a year from now for the next version?

That's part of the reason they are bumping prices, is to deal with the people waiting to upgrade. I also suspect that giving more TLC to the OS and specifically for how it runs on older phones is part of that shift to adapt to consumer behavior.

I moved form the 6 to the XS. I'm happy, but I'll be using it for a while. I think people with models with less limited RAM than the 6 had will be able to hold out even longer.

Also the bitching needs to be generalized. The flagship samsung phones are damn close in price, and between samsung and apple, you are looking at 59% of the market.
 
kju1 said:
Its "top" customer for the iPhone XR? Wouldnt the only customer for that be Apple?
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LOL.. thats what jumped out to me as well. Unless.. they are admitting, they are making and selling iphones to other customers?

(y)
 
Nolan7689 said:
They need to just keep going with iPhone SE production really. Small form factor and just keep the components somewhat updated.

People like my parents are perfectly happy with the SE. Giant screens don’t interest them, they just need a phone to be a phone.
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Heck, not just people like your parents.

I have a tablet if I want a big screen.

What I want is something small in my pocket. I got rid of the George Costanza wallet a while ago, slimmed down a bunch, and minimized my keychain.
Why would I want to go backwards and get a bigger phone.
 
katanaD said:
LOL.. thats what jumped out to me as well. Unless.. they are admitting, they are making and selling iphones to other customers?

(y)
Click to expand...

The only other thing I could think of is that maybe Apple permits direct ship from factory to carrier? But my impression was that Apple controlled distribution post manufacture...
 
I'll keep my Galaxy S8 until it dies, or someone invents a stretchable phone, that's the size of a credit card when small, and can be stretched up to tablet size when needed by pulling on the corners. With all-day battery life, minimum. THAT would be worth $1500.
 
I'm still using a 6 Plus and I don't care. Lord knows how many CPUs and GPUs I've owned during that time.

But honestly the camera is the only reason I'd want to upgrade. I would have bitten on the Verizon's promo to buy 2 of the Xs series, but the $700 credit was going to be paid out against future service. All that would do is save my employer money b/c I don't pay the service bill.
 
I knew I was on to something when I did my research and bought a 8 plus instead of any of the newer variants. This is my first iPhone, and I feel like I made the correct decision.

That said, many people I know have not “upgraded” to the new phones that lack a fingerprint reader.

Now if apple can be “brave” and put a fingerprint scanner under the screen, ala the one plus 6 t.... now you have my attention.
 
brentsg said:
I'm still using a 6 Plus and I don't care. Lord knows how many CPUs and GPUs I've owned during that time.

But honestly the camera is the only reason I'd want to upgrade. I would have bitten on the Verizon's promo to buy 2 of the Xs series, but the $700 credit was going to be paid out against future service. All that would do is save my employer money b/c I don't pay the service bill.
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Camera, screen, and amount of storage. Typically screen and amount of storage force an upgrade for me before camera.
 
raz-0 said:
But can you justify the price a year from now for the next version?
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If I end up getting a new phone next year and I end up keeping it for three years like I kept my iPhone 7 Plus then I can justify it, I would justify it by the fact that I paid for it over a period of three years. In the meantime, I'm going to save up the cash for a new device and by this time next year I'll have the cash on hand to buy it. I've learned that if you don't have the money in the bank, don't buy something unless you're in a position where you absolutely have no choice.
 
kju1 said:
Camera, screen, and amount of storage. Typically screen and amount of storage force an upgrade for me before camera.
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With iCloud, I never really have an issue. If anything, the newer camera might push me to use more local storage. I gave up on the app store unless it's a genuine need (sleep tracking, for example). I'm using like 43GB of 64 on my 6 Plus.

But yeah for sure I get that we all have different use cases. I don't give a crap about the screen.. I just mostly use it as a phone and for texting.
 
The bottom of the market is more interesting than the top these days. My current phone is a $35 Huawei Elate and Cricket just unlocked it for free after 6 months.
 
raz-0 said:
But can you justify the price a year from now for the next version?

That's part of the reason they are bumping prices, is to deal with the people waiting to upgrade. I also suspect that giving more TLC to the OS and specifically for how it runs on older phones is part of that shift to adapt to consumer behavior.

I moved form the 6 to the XS. I'm happy, but I'll be using it for a while. I think people with models with less limited RAM than the 6 had will be able to hold out even longer.

Also the bitching needs to be generalized. The flagship samsung phones are damn close in price, and between samsung and apple, you are looking at 59% of the market.
Click to expand...

Unknown what I will do for my next phone. Likely will not be an Apple or top of the line Android due to price. Either that I will switch to buying used phones, though this bothers me a bit security wise as I am not the original owner and it will become not supported sooner.

Will have to see if anything changes between now and when I have to upgrade vs want to upgrade.
 
Swappa always has amazing deals on used phones. I'd give them a try. I had to get a backup phone in case my main phone takes a dump and I got a used iPhone SE for 80 bucks. Hard to argue with that price.[/QUOTE said:
I hadn't considered Swappa, thanks for the suggestion.
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Supposedly, Apple was trying to gain a foothold in markets like India and China. The very expensive phones likely are not going to sell well in these markets. I would not be surprised if the iPhone SE makes a comeback (although I doubt it will be cheap - just not have the same profit margins as the others).
 
$749 phone that doesn't even have 1080p. They must have been reeeeally optimistic about the sheeple biting.
 
XsMax sells higher % then expected. Xs sells like crap. Everything over 256gb sells like crap. Xr sells far shorter then expected and suddenly Apple decided to stop telling investors how much they sell. Bad management decisions being hidden. Eventually bottom line will start taking big enough hits to begin panic and devaluation will slowly begin. Saturated market with stronger competition causes that. I was hoping a 3rd player would hold on. Blackberry failed and joined Android. I hear Microsoft is also joining android? Did that direction actually happen? We are down to Apple VS Android. Im actually shocked a linux distro hasn’t kicked off on phones yet lol.
 
Holding off on upgrading, my iPhone 8gb is working better than ever!
 
I used to buy used phones but I won't do it any longer. People can sell their phones, refuse to pay their bills, and even if the phone is paid off the carrier will blacklist it leaving you in the cold. The last time I bought a used phone was my 6+ (it had just been released, it wasn't an "old" phone, just 2nd hand). I got a funny feeling about the seller and asked my wife to immediately get to the Apple Store and exchange it. She complained it was dropping calls and sounding fuzzy; luckily it dropped the call when the Genius tested it with her so they exchanged it no questions asked. A week later it was blacklisted. The original had been fully paid for but they still blacklisted the replacement because the original owner skipped on the mobile phone bill (not the device payment itself). It took a conference call between Apple Corp., Tmobile, and AT&T with Apple confirming the device had come straight from their retail store, Tmobile confirming I had never missed a bill, to get AT&T to allow its use on the network.

That was how many years ago? I suspect it's even worse now and I doubt the remedy I experienced would even be possible now. I upgraded to the 6s+ during Tmobile's black Friday 2 for 1 and that's the phone I still have. Tmobile runs those deals frequently enough that it's just not worth the risk anymore. When a used phone is hovering around $600-800 dollars these days I can't justify losing that to save a couple more hundred dollars.

I've heard of Swappa but never used them. I'm not sure what they would be able to do in a situation like I found myself in. Again, you can check the device to see if it's fully paid off, but carriers will still blacklist a device if the owner doesn't pay their minutes bill unless law or policy has changed that in the past few years, which I doubt.

Vader1975 said:
XsMax sells higher % then expected. Xs sells like crap. Everything over 256gb sells like crap. Xr sells far shorter then expected and suddenly Apple decided to stop telling investors how much they sell. Bad management decisions being hidden. Eventually bottom line will start taking big enough hits to begin panic and devaluation will slowly begin. Saturated market with stronger competition causes that. I was hoping a 3rd player would hold on. Blackberry failed and joined Android. I hear Microsoft is also joining android? Did that direction actually happen? We are down to Apple VS Android. Im actually shocked a linux distro hasn’t kicked off on phones yet lol.
Click to expand...
We've heard this since the first iPhone launched. Maybe this will finally be the year Apple fails!
It always confuses me why people are so eager to see the most profitable tech company, a US company on top of it all, fail. Arguably what's good for them is good for us as a whole.

In other news, Apple has always used pull rather than push marketing so the news that they don't have production going ham and stock piling up somewhere is usually taken as a good thing by investors. That's 180 degrees out from the rest of the industry so analysts tend to take the wrong message away from information that all the production lines aren't humming away at 100% capacity.
 
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Now you have me scared buying used... *sigh* dont know what I will do.
 
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