Published on | Prototyping: From UX to Front End — Medium Haroon Aslam The iPhone X edge-to-edge display. Done before, but not this way.

I’ll preface this story by mentioning that I’m not a fan of Apple. Their design sensibilities just don’t appeal to my aesthetic, but I appreciate their genius for all its profitable worth. An incidental dovetail, that. This is a story about pricing strategies, and the sacrificial lamb known as the iPhone 8.

You could see it from a mile away. I was perplexed by the announcement of an iPhone 8, and then an iPhone X. Why announce an exceptional product on top of your previous top product? Why devalue your brand? Obviously, everyone would want the iPhone X, and only the poor — pun intended — folks on carrier contracts doing marginal upgrades would get the now marginal iPhone 8. No lines for an iPhone 8 should surprise no one. But of course, “news”.

Anyway, I briefly digress. Therein lies the genius. Apple has spent years being mediocre, and now secretly has accepted it. The iPhones in recent memories have been iterations and none of the revolution that bred the brand. The underpinnings of disappointment were percolating press and public alike, because Apple had set an expectation it could rarely every meet again. Enter, iPhone 8, and iPhone X. Let’s reset expectations.

Paraphrasing Apple’s Mindset

iPhone 8
The top tier of smartphones. That’s the iPhone. Every year, we will release a model that polishes, and sometimes experiments with new ideas. A phone for everyone, because everyone deserves the best experience.

iPhone X
Of course, you’re not everyone. You’re special. And we’re Apple, and we’re ready to do something special again. This is an all-new brand, and an-all new experience. Enter the ultra premium smartphone, one that is priced accordingly.

So, now… Here’s what’s going happen.

While everyone else has mid-tier and top-tier phones, we’re going to have top-tier and ultra-tier phones. We are moving the market up.
The iPhone 8 sales will be not great at launch. That’s okay — we knew that. People will talk, and build anticipation towards the X even more. Oh, the suspense.
The X will launch and the elitist and die-hards will both A) pay an all new premium tier price, and B) generate the die-hard demand this segment has always created.
Now, a new expectation has been set. Sales of the 8 will normalize, and begin to cannibalize the mid-tier of our competitors. While priced above their top tiers, we are visibly a superior product with the X. And the people will gravitate towards it, completely overcoming a major mental price barrier.
Win.

For the iPhone X to be a success, Apple had to sacrifice a generation of phones to create a new pricing tier.

With their pricing, they are communicating that the iPhone 8 is the top tier of phones you have always expected. But, you’ve been asking for more. So instead of replacing their top tier — they priced in and created a new product category above it.

That’s how it will play out in the market. But really. If you want my opinion. Apple realized that they are like every other tech company that needs a mid-range tier of products to settle and sustain expectations. They just went about branding it and pricing it in a way that’s so Apple.

Now, you can stop being disappointed.

Note: I still call it the “Ex” and not the “Ten”.

Photo by Khara Woods on Unsplash

The Genius Self-Sabotage: iPhone 8 and X was originally published in prototypr on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The Genius Self-Sabotage: iPhone 8 and X

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