Apple tried to get customers to purchase the iPhone 8 by quietly stopping sales of the 256 GB iPhone 7, but the move has not produced the desired results for Apple.
Apple must have thought that dropping the largest storage option for the iPhone 7 will get customers to buy the iPhone 8 instead. The company has apparently thought wrong.
Apple Discontinues 256 GB iPhone 7
According to a report by Mashable, sales of the 256 GB iPhone 7 stopped on Sept. 12, the day that Apple announced the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and the premium iPhone X. The information was acquired from archived versions of the Apple website through the Wayback Machine, and confirmed by an Apple customer service representative who said that the company no longer has the 256 GB iPhone 7 up for sale.
Apple fans who prefer to have their smartphones filled with a massive number of apps and content will need to buy iPhones with the largest storage available. With the iPhone 7 now only offering 32 GB and 128 GB models, these customers who are looking to buy a new iPhone will be forced to buy the 256 GB model of the iPhone 8 instead.
The move might not be much, but it shows how Apple tries to get customers to purchase its new products. Unfortunately for Apple, however, the move has so far failed.
iPhone 8 Sales Not Doing Well
Apple may have been looking to boost iPhone 8 sales by discontinuing the 256 GB iPhone 7, but from the looks of it, the company will need to do much more than that. Analysts have said that iPhone 8 sales are in trouble, as demand for the smartphone has been muted.
Even without a 256 GB model, interest for the iPhone 7 has increased despite the availability of the iPhone 8. The starting price of the iPhone 7 has been decreased to $549, compared to the $699 starting price of the iPhone 8, and customers have been going with the previous-generation model because the upgrades between the two devices are apparently seen as not that important. Customers who really want to acquire the 256 GB iPhone 7 can also do so through wireless carriers, which still have stocks of the smartphone.
Most of the significant new features and changes were applied by Apple to the iPhone X, which is another reason for the languishing iPhone 8 sales. Customers are not purchasing the iPhone 8 as they intend to instead buy the iPhone X, or at least want to compare the two smartphones before deciding which one to get.
The quiet discontinuation of the 256 GB iPhone 7 looks like it did not do much to help the iPhone 8, as there are deeper issues that have pushed down the smartphone's sales.
Nice try, Apple.
