Next Gen Apple Phone Will Test Consumer Tolerance

Apple introduced the new iPhone X at their annual September meeting, and the most talked about feature is the $999 price tag. Faced with declining sales, Apple is taxed with the double challenge of growing revenues and market share for a rapidly maturing iPhone product line. Tim Cook's answer: a complete reboot at a higher sticker price. To help mitigate the risk of the iPhone X launch, Apple will also roll out a "new" iPhone 8 series, which will allow iPhone loyalists the opportunity to ease into the new design. Aside from the price, the iPhone X offers a 5.8-inch OLED display that stretches across the entire front of the phone. This “Super Retina Display” comes with 1125 x 2436 pixels of resolution, making it the highest-density screen of any iPhone, and it includes 3D Touch and True Tone automatic calibration.

One of the most buzzed about features of the iPhone X is Face ID, which utilizes the TrueDepth camera system that’s embedded in the top of the phone. The camera throws 30,000 infrared dots on your face, then reads the dot map, matches it against the stored image on the phone using a built-in neural network processor, and unlocks the phone. It remains to be seen, literally, how this new security system will be received - some users are worried about the implications of makeup, for example, on the phone's sensors.The front camera is also used for the new animated emoji that reacts to your facial expressions. The battery of the iPhone X is purported to last two hours longer than the iPhone 7, and there’s the matter of no headphone jack, which is almost universally despised. The new iPhone X is scheduled to arrive in stores in November.

PageBreaks Take: Aside from the new X, Apple also used their annual meeting to introduce the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, Apple Watch Series 3 and 4K Apple TV, but these announcements were generally met with yawns. The company is betting a lot on the new X product line. Otherwise, it's back to the drawing board for Tim Cook and the Apple design team.

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