Apple to phase out the iPhone X and SE over unprecedented demand for upgrades

Not that it comes as a huge surprise, but analysts are again clamoring that Apple will phase out production of the iPhone X, replacing it with the newer 2018 crop on the wholesome, but this time they are adding the iPhone SE to the chopping block, too.

It all makes perfect sense, though - if Apple is making the biggest bet on big-screen phones in its history this year, tiny 4-inchers needn't apply (cue the jokes here), and neither do controversial $999 phones that will be made obsolete by their successor, and an eventual $699 6-incher with LCD screen and a notch. Not to mention how comparatively expensive the X is to produce - those exclusive contracts with Samsung Display, the TrueDepth camera suppliers and all that, may all be nixed when Apple phases it out for newly-negotiated component prices in its successor.

Thus, BlueFin analysts are predicting a giant wave of upgrades for Apple this year, due to "pent-up demand," and people sitting out the iPhone X due to price and other reasons, who will have little choice but to pick one of the three models that Apple will be introducing in the fall. They tip that the team from Cupertino has allegedly planned to order about 180 million phones in total to suppliers for its next fiscal year (part of it will still be iPhone 8 units for the nostalgia-driven), which is a giant number. The reasons?

source: Barron's