The iPhone X was the most anticipated smartphone released this past year, but a slower sales forecast has Apple rethinking its plans for the future.
LCD Screen Vs OLED Screen
For the longest time, smartphones were made with liquid crystal display (LCD) screens. However, Apple experimented with a new fancier screen callled organic light-emitting diode (OLED).
OLED screens offer numerous advantages. The screens are thinner and offer an umatched image quality. Unlike an LCD screen, an OLED screen does not need a backlight, which makes watching videos clearer. It also has greater contrast and saturation.
As a result of the higher quality, an OLED screen costs $100, and an LCD screen costs about $40 for a phone. Samsung and LG phones have avoided OLED screens for now, but that could change in the future.
The iPhone X Hits The Market
In 2017, Apple released the iPhone X. It was the first major phone to offer the OLED screen. Some people considered this to be the most anticipated screen in smartphone history, and that it would start a revolution with smartphones.
The iPhone X currently starts at $999. The iPhone 8, which has an LCD screen, is just $699. This represents a major price difference.
Despite the high price tag, the iPhone X became the world's best selling smartphone. Apple sold over 77 million total iPhones in the world during Q1 2018. It also increased its iPhone revenue, up by 11 percent from 2017.
However, sales weren't that good for the iPhone X. Overall, the number of iPhones sold by Apple dropped by 5 million when compared to 2017. The reason for this was because of the slow sales for the iPhone X, which has the high price tag.
Apple's Next iPhones
On June 15, the Wall Street Journal reported that Apple is developing its next iPhones for the following season. However, due to a weaker forecast for the expensive iPhone X with the OLED screen, it is planning to focus more on cheaper LCD screens.
This fall, Apple will launch two new OLED models and one LCD model. The anticipation is that LCD models will likely make up a majority of its iPhone sales. As a result, it will produce more LCD models. This is a contract from its original plan to produce an equal number of the two screen types. The concern from Apple is that the LCD phone will have a lower price tag, but it will deliver better sales for the company.
