2018 iPhone News: 6.1-Inch LCD Model Could Be as Cheap as $550
Apple is about to make budget iPhones for this year, according to a projection from a well-known Apple analyst. The company is expected to release three new iPhone models for 2018, and at least one of them will be the cheap variety with an LCD display.
The company looks to be heeding warnings that more expensive iPhones could lead to "signs of trouble" for the company, which has just cut the production for its pricey $1,000 iPhone X by half in the face of unexpectedly weak demand.
Expensive iPhone models, the pricey gadgets that the company churns out year in and year out, is Apple's calling card, until perhaps this year.
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According to investor notes given out by KGI Security analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, a known Apple industry observer, the company could turn to cheaper LCD displays for one or two 6.1-inch new iPhone models for 2018, as Mac Rumors reported.
What's more is that Apple could now be admitting that dual SIMs are a useful feature to have, and the company might have one model out this 2018 that will have two SIM card slots. A new and cheaper iPhone 2018 could start at $550 to $650, still pricey but are basement bargains compared to the iPhone X.
Adding dual-sim capabilities to that could push the price of a dual-SIM iPhone 2018 up to $650 to $750. Tacking on a $100 just for an extra SIM slot may sound a bit excessive, but Apple is offering dual-SIM dual standby (DSDS) support for the second slot.
It's all to push into the Chinese market which is awash in dual-SIM flagship phones, a feature that Apple has not considered adding until now that the iPhone X is doing a bit worse than the company expected. The price gap is also Apple's way of making a possible, cheap single-SIM LCD iPhone handset more attractive, as Kuo noted.
"More price segments would be created, significantly boosting shipments via the low-price single-SIM model," Kuo mentioned in his note, before adding another advantage of a DSDS model for Apple.
"The DSDS model will help increase market share in China and commercial markets," he added. DSDS technology will also let the phone switch automatically between the SIM cards, letting users travel across cellular provider regions without having to swap out their SIMs.
The DSDS capability seems to be a last-minute addition, according to Apple Insider, which likely made it in time for the mass production schedule of the new LCD-based iPhones. The production of the cheaper iPhone models is expected to start three to five weeks after Apple starts making the yet-unconfirmed OLED models rumored to arrive this year.
Kuo also believes that between being the cheapest iPhone in the market and a rumored DSDS option, the LCD 2018 iPhone might just turn out to be the most popular model for this year.
