It has been reported that the lines of fans waiting outside Apple stores to acquire the new iPhone 8 are surprisingly short. This is nothing compared to what people have seen in previous years during the release of other versions of the iPhone.
The revolutionary iPhone 8 was launched on Friday, and though there was a lot of expectation regarding this new smartphone, lines to buy it in Apple stores just don’t reflect it. This has led to consider that the sales of the iPhone 8 are going to be far worse than the sales of previous iPhone such as the iPhone 6 or the iPhone 7. However, Apple CEO Tim Cook considered that the lines outside the Apple stores do not reflect what the sales have been like the last couple of days.
Is the iPhone 8 in trouble?
Everybody remembers the endless lines of Apple fans waiting outside stores in different countries to be among the first ones to get the newest iPhone as soon as it was released year after year. This has been a trend since 2007 when Steve jobs exhibited the first and iconic iPhone to the world. However, this phenomenon was not seen this time with the release of the iPhone 8, and many have wondered what changed.
Some say that it won’t meet the expected sales taking into account the decline in the number of pre-orders. Some considered it is because of the iPhone X, which will be launched in November, and therefore many fans preferred to wait a few more weeks to get this phone instead of the iPhone 8. However, according to Apple CEO, the sales they have obtained with the iPhone 8 up until now have nothing to do with the length of lines outside the Apple stores.
Better management has reduced the lines outside Apple Stores
Though many have seen this as a failure that Apple is enduring, Cook said that in many stores the iPhone 8 and the iPhone 8 Plus are already sold out. Apparently, the shorter lines are due to better management of the company. Apple has improved its appointment systems convincing people to preorder the phone and to go and get it in a determinate moment of the day. This has made lines shorter and more manageable.
It is important to note that the online store has many years already, but it wasn’t as important as it is now. In 2007 or 2009, fans preferred to make a line outside the stores instead of using the appointment system of the online store, which was kind of irrelevant not so long ago.
The change started in 2010 when Apple introduced a superior online store. Fans still were reticent to use it, but the world has changed, and now everyone is using the internet to buy everything they can. So, as fans have grown fond of Apple’s online stores, the lines in the release days have decreased.
Moreover, many have reported that the situation is completely different once you go into the stores. This was the case of the Apple Store in Palo Alto or the Fifth Avenue. People have said stores are jammed and pretty loud everywhere, which could be a sign that the iPhone 8 is certainly doing pretty well.
Apple’s competition could be focusing on the negative reports of the iPhone 8, but only time can tell if the sales are not that good as Apple predicted. As well, it is important to remember that another big product is being released in November, so definitely many customers might have opted for the iPhone X – which bring some new interesting features- instead. It is left to see if in November the outdoor lines will be larger or smaller than this time at Apple’s 400 stores around the world.
The iPhone 8. What’s new?
The phone has a 5.5-inches bezel-less Retina HD True Tone IPS LCD with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels. The iPhone is run by an A11 Bionic chip with 64-bit architecture and an embedded M11 motion coprocessor. It comes with iOS 11, and it weighs 202 grams. It has a dual rear camera of 12 MP (wide-angle) + 12 MP (telephoto). It has a 7MP front camera too with a f/2.2 aperture and Retina flash. Among its features, it is relevant to mention the optical zoom, digital zoom up to 10x, Quad-LED True Tone flash, Portrait mode, and Portrait Lighting.
It comes with two storing options which are of 64GB and 256GB. When it comes to the battery life, Apple said that these iPhones offer 21 hours of talk time and 13 hours of internet use. It charges fast being able to provide 50 percent of change in 30 minutes. It offers wireless charging using Qi chargers. The phone is splash, water and dust resistant due to the IP67 rating.
Source: Patently Apple