Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
iPhone XR If the iPhone XR is "selling poorly" then..
- Thread starter wakinghour
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
XR is a garbage product. I said it when the specs were leaked, I said it on release and I’m saying it again now.
I’ve no doubt some people love it, but I bought an 8 Plus instead (used and got a good deal) and never even considered an XR, nor would I recommend it to anybody. And here’s why:
I’ve no doubt some people love it, but I bought an 8 Plus instead (used and got a good deal) and never even considered an XR, nor would I recommend it to anybody. And here’s why:
- Less than 1080p resolution is inexcusable and obvious crippling in comparison to their other high-end phones. Native 1080p (or better) offers maximum sharpness for videos in that form-factor.
- 3D Touch is one of the great Apple technologies that keeps me on iPhone, probably the biggest reason even. I use it constantly on the keyboard to move the cursor. Admittedly not often for much else, but that use alone is worth going down or up to the 8/Xs lines that have it
- I saw a video that showed they were using an inferior LCD panel with poorer viewing angles and greater colour shift, synonymous with trying to cut costs; yet it’s still insanely expensive overall
- Though it has a strong metal body like the 8, the various colours just remind me of the C phones with their plastic casings. It’s an automatic, unconscious comparison but a negative one
- Being similar to but not as good looking as the Xs also contributes to the feeling of it being a compromised product
- I still like Touch ID and hate the notch when watching videos
You summed up my thoughts about the XR perfectly! Also agree about the color shift it was disgusting on mine. Went back to the 8+ and no color shift.
All that is eclipsed by the fact the XR has a screen to body ratio of 80% with Face ID.
Those two things separate an old phone from a new phone. Consumers want to buy a phone that looks new.
If you look at the top 5 smartphone manufacturers in the world, everybody was producing a phone with thin-bezel LCD and notch last year. They sold extremely well last year and continue to sell this year. Apple is simply cashing on this money train.
I'm not going to comment on your Xr opinions ... I haven't used one and have no desire to.
I will state that contrary to public opinion, the 5c was not a flop. It sold very well, right in line with what the $550 iPhone option would be expected to sell. Apple didn't want the 5c to be the best seller, they wanted the 5S to be the top model and the 5c would be for folks that wanted to spend less. The discontinued the 5 because it cost more to manufacture than the 5c, plus they didn't want folks to feel that the 5 and 5S were just about the same. The plastic body created a bigger gap between the models.
As for the Xr being the best selling iPhone, I doubt that Apple really wanted that to happen. I'm sure they would prefer selling Xs and Max units in lieu of Xr. These estimates you refer to are just analysts throwing stuff against a wall to see what sticks.
The side bezels on the XR are atrocious. It looks like a Chinese knock off of the XS.
The 8 Plus uses a chassis design from 2014 with a screen to body ratio of 67%. It's all relative.
When an $850 smartphone from Oppo looks better than iPhone 8 Plus, it's not a surprise. But when even a $150 phone from Oppo looks better than iPhone 8 Plus, consumers will think twice before buying iPhone 8.
I suppose Apple could have chosen to put smaller side bezels on the Xr, but I think they opted for the final design to keep symmetry with the top and bottom bezels.
I'm sure they had prototypes with various bezel widths and they ended up going with what the decision makers felt looked best.
I think either design is fine. What's ridiculous are complaints from iPhone 8 Plus users about the XR bezel. The bezel is literally 1.1 mm thicker than the Xs.
Let’s get that right, ‘some consumers’. That market evidently exists but so does the market for people who don’t really care as long as they get a good deal.
Personally I’d learned that nobody cares what your phone looks like except yourself. If you’re happy with it then that’s all that matters.
I think many Apple consumers care about the design. There's a reason Apple trots out Jony Ive with nearly every product launch. People care about the design. Some people can convince themselves the old design looks good, but I think that's a minority.
I don’t think that’s the case anymore and hasn’t been for some time. Nearly everybody I know owns an iPhone, but I know very few who are Apple enthusiasts, in fact outside of this place I don’t know any. Older iPhones are seen a plenty and I genuinely don’t think the desire to have the latest and greatest is anything like it used to be.
America may be very different from Europe on this, but the smartphone buzz has very much died down here hence why newer models are struggling against older models in terms of sales over here. An iPhone is an iPhone to most people and the fact some have bezels or poorer screens fades into insignificance when you can get an iPhone 8 with no upfront cost for £29 a month.
That's not only a U.K. perspective. I rarely see a X-design phone but see lots of the 6 through 8 regular and plus models. People are here are simply waiting later to upgrade and could not care less what anyone else have.
Smartphones are long past the novelty stage. What works best for most people and is affordable is what matters. Not one person who has looked at my XR has said, "Wow, look at those bezels!" Frankly, not many have even noticed I have a new phone.
I’m in the UK and travel quite a bit in Europe. From my observations I totally agree with you.
In my opinion, it's apples increased prices that have contributed to many consumers holding on to older phones, or seeking older models to save money.
I travel between the UK, Germany, Poland and the Netherlands and I’m also surprised how few newer iPhones I see on my travels. I see plenty of iPhone 7’s and Androids on the business side and an abundance of older iPhones as I travel. I see the odd iPhone X or XS and that’s it.
Why do you find this to be odd? Let's look at the numbers.
There are an estimated 1 billion iPhones in use today. Last year, Apple sold about 218,000,000 iPhones ... let's say 30% of them were X. That would be 66 million X. Add in the short period of time the Xr, Xs and Max have been on sale and let's say 90 million are of the "X" design.
I don't know what the user base for Android is, but let's say it's 3x of iPhone. That pegs the user base at about 4 billion.
90 million out of 4 billion is a little over 2% of the overall mobile phone user base. Sanity check, there are over 7.5 billion people on the planet, so 4 billion phones sounds reasonable.
Would you say that out of every 100 phones you see in your daily life, 2 or 3 of them are the X design? Or perhaps more?
They changed MATH!!!!!!
Anyone see the incredible's 2?
Here in NJ where I reside, I see the same thing. Plenty of 7's and 8's in the wild. Not as many X's.
On the days I see them yes that’s probably about right. I suppose I find it odd because when the iPhone 6 came out in 2014 they were absolutely everywhere and it was obvious too as they were clearly bigger phones. I just don’t notice a popularity of new iPhones like I did a few years ago, but this should be expected.
One observation from myself is the few people I tend to see with X design iPhones are young student types, whereas on the business side of my daily life is usually the iPhone 7, 8 and Plus variants. They certainly feel like less of a status object than they used to be too.
I don't get it? I just double checked my math. 2.25% sounds reasonable.They changed MATH!!!!!!
Anyone see the incredible's 2?
And yes, I've seen Incredibles 2.
You saw the incredible's 2 and didn't get the humor? My apologies I was not saying your math was wrong.
Definitely agree that they aren't as much of a status symbol.
Regarding your point about students getting the X and business folks getting the older style ... I think this makes sense. If you're buying it for yourself, you're more likely to splurge. Unless you're the business owner, there's very little use cases where your employees "need" an iPhone X. Get them an 8 and they'll be happy using a free phone.
Regarding the notion that you saw way more iPhone 6's back in the day, that also makes sense. In the first year, they probably sold way more 6/6+ than they did the X-design. That year, they sold 230,000,000 phones, where probably 70% were 6/6+. That's 161 million 6-design phones. The worldwide user base was much smaller then too, let's say 3 billion (total guess). That would lead to 5.4% of all users. Almost 3x as many as the X-design.