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Comment by Despegar | Hacker News Reader

The iPhone XS was the exact same price as the X and that sold plenty fine. It wasn't the price as his letter points out, much to the dismay of many people.

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It could be a slightly lesser effect; people were willing to buy the S models of previous iPhones, even though the changes weren't that big on the surface, because the price was lower, however when the phone is so expensive, people wait for a bigger change before buying a new phone. The iPhone S was a gigantic change relative to all other new models of iPhone; the Xs is mostly more of the same.

Or that might not be the reason, I don't know enough to analyze the situation by far. I just don't think we should rule out the extreme price increase as a potential partial explanation.

The people willing to pay that price already have an iPhone X, and not enough of them are willing to pay it a second time for a minor revision.

This

Agreed - This is what their strategy overlooked. Lineup needs to exceed expectations to justify price increase y/y, but revisions are increasingly minor since the 7 lineup.

I would say as far back as the iPhone 6.

I think that's the key. I've upgraded every year for many years, but I just wasn't compelled to do it this year. I love my X, and it's still working great! I fully expect to upgrade next year.

The entire installed base doesn't upgrade every single year. There are years of people upgrading to the X form factor left.

The entire installed base is not willing to pay these prices, as Apple have discovered.

You just described me. I am still tempted because I want a bigger screen (I read a lot on my phone) but I cannot justify the ~1450 EUR price that the XS Max at 256GB storage sits at around here in Eastern Europe.

That's not true. Users usually upgrade in cohorts. Not everyone upgrades every year and those upgrade cycles are getting longer industry-wide as Apple and others have acknowledged repeatedly.

What you said doesn't contradict him/her. As an X user, XS and XS Max are very minor upgrades and are absolutely not worth the 1450 - 1500 EUR of price.

But the people I know who switched from 6S / 7 are very much happy with their decision to buy an XS.

I'd say the premium price is only worth the gap between competition. Status item can only do so much.

Do we have iPhone XS sales figures?

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