Apple’s new iPhone X is the “future of smartphone design” and will still be a success despite its near £1,000 price tag, one analyst believes.
The technology giant used a live event on Tuesday to unveil the special edition iPhone to mark its 10th anniversary, complete with an edge-to-edge screen and facial recognition technology.
The phone’s starting price of £999 – which can rise to £1,149 for the highest specification version – sparked some outcry on social media.
The device goes on sale on November 3, some two months after the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus, which begin shipping on September 22.
Technology expert Ian Fogg, from IHS Markit, said the price jump had been overstated for what the iPhone X offers in terms of an upgrade.
“Apple is hoping the later availability date for iPhone X will not affect iPhone 8 sales this quarter,” he said.
“Apple’s lower iPhone 8 pricing should limit the impact, but it remains a risk. iPhone X is the future of smartphone design, but it’s also available in the future too.
How the new iPhone compares in price to previous models (PA Graphics)
“iPhone X is a premium-priced smartphone which for the first time goes over the 1,000 dollars threshold for the top 256GB model.
“It will still sell in enormous volumes because Apple has repeatedly demonstrated its ability to persuade consumers to shift their overall spending to place a greater share of their disposable income towards a smartphone purchase.
“And the starting price of 999 dollars is only 33 dollars more than the previously most expensive iPhone, the 7 Plus 256GB.”
How the iPhone has changed in size over the years (PA Graphics)
The iPhone X will be the first Apple smartphone to feature facial recognition technology – enabling users to unlock the device with their face.
It replaces the fingerprint-scanning Touch ID, built into the home button, which has vanished from the iPhone X to make way for the larger screen.
The facial-scanning software can also be used to animate emojis and send them as messages, a feature Apple is calling Animoji.
Apple launched three new iPhones in Cupertino (Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP)
The iPhone X was the showpiece announcement at Apple’s first event to take place on its new Apple Park campus – inside the new Steve Jobs Theatre.
Chief executive Tim Cook paid tribute to the late co-founder at the beginning of his keynote, calling the venue a tribute to “Jobs and his vision”.
A third-generation Apple Watch, which contains its own mobile signal and can be used to make phone calls independent of a smartphone, was also announced alongside the Apple TV 4K.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here