The Low Sales of the iPhone 8

The iPhone 8, released last month, had faced a decrease in sales during the opening week compared to previous iPhone models.

Despite the reported low sales of the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus and with the upcoming release of the iPhone X, the latest iPhone release had been meeting analysts’ expectations. The anticipation of the more advanced iPhone X would have caused the low iPhone 8 sales after the opening weekend. It was also suggested that the iPhone 8 was produced at a lower quantity than the iPhone 7, explaining both the low sales and the low expectations.

Even though the sales of the iPhone 8 were doing well for a while, the sales started to drop during the release on the 22nd of September. The lower-than-expected number of people buying the iPhone seems to suggest that not many people wanted the new iPhone. In an Apple Store located in Hangzhou, China barricades and security guards had been placed to control what was expected to be a crowd-frenzy line up. Surprisingly, only 2 people showed up for the release of the new iPhone.

This show-up was not only reported in China, but in some parts of the world as well. In Hong Kong, it was also reported that there had been less people showing up during the opening weekend of the iPhone 8 release compared to previous years. In London, UK, there had been less people turning up early in the morning of the release, but as time went on, more people showed up to get the new iPhone. Still, it was not as big as the line up in the previous years.

Even though the release date of the iPhone X was announced to be in November, it is not expected to be readily available until 2018. Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has stated that due to problems with the mass production of the “Truedepth” camera sensor for the Face ID facial recognition system, the iPhone X will not go into full production until next year. Kuo had also predicted that only 2-4 M units by January 2018. In the meantime, customers might have to wait until the iPhone X production ramps up.

For now, the iPhone 8 is being sold from 929 CAD, while the 8 Plus is sold at a price of 1059 CAD. The iPhone 8 itself offers a wireless charging feature, which was a new feature from the previous generation iPhones. The upcoming iPhone X will start at around 1319 CAD, and pre-orders for the iPhone X will begin on 27 October. The iPhone X will be Apple’s first iPhone to have an edge to edge screen and will not have a home button.

While the iPhone 8 is currently being sold, the iPhone X will be released on the 3rd of November, but the units will still be sold sparingly until next year.