iPhone 8, Apple's latest phone, is experiencing weak sales mostly because of the presence of the iPhone X. At the 2017 Keynote, Apple's CEO, Tim Cook, announced that Apple would be releasing the iPhone X on November 3, about a month after the release of the iPhone 8. Many Apple consumers have skipped the 8 and plan to purchase the X once it is released. The X does have a higher price tag, but it actually has a much lower mark up, meaning that Apple will make more profit by selling the iPhone 8s then Xs. Based on this, it looks like the iPhone X represents an investment for Apple. This situation can also explain Apple's recently low stock values. Investors know that selling many iPhone Xs will not necessarily translate to huge profits. As consumers wait for the iPhone X's release, iPhone 8 sales stay low.
Apple is doing as much as they can to make the iPhone X a success. Tim Cook is apparently trying to take advantage of the dedicated Apple consumers who are willing to pay a premium price to keep the newest iPhone in their pockets. He hopes that they will buy the 8 now and purchase the X as soon as its released. Another interesting marketing strategy used by Apple is their numbering of the phones. Apple will not release an iPhone 9 and is calling the next iPhone X, the roman numeral for 10. Most likely this is because the Japanese word for 9 is unlucky as it sounds similar to the word that means pain. This technique was also used by Microsoft when they went from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10. Apple is definitely using some interesting strategies to insure that the iPhone X becomes a successful device.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/iphone-8-posts-weak-initial-sales-pressuring-iphone-x-1509010201
I think it's very interesting that they went from naming the phones with numbers to going to roman numerals. Maybe it's a way to catch people's attention since they changed to roman numerals instead. I'm also very curious to see if they will continue to do this with the rest of their phones coming out or eventually switch back to using regular numbers.
ReplyDelete