Apple to retire the iPhoneX

Kuo is a hit and miss analyst. He tends to be more accurate the closer it gets to a new device being launched. That said, he has called plenty of stuff correctly and this makes sense. I expect the 2018 iPhone X to merely incremental over the current model.

A few thoughts (disclaimer: including some that I’ve read elsewhere):

1. Ming-Chi Kuo seems to have excellent sources within Apple’s Asian supply chain. His record is excellent regarding what is going on in that supply chain, much less so regarding the why.
2. This would not be the first time that Apple stops selling a model after a year.
   The same thing happened with the iPhone 5: the successor was the next-generation iPhone 5S, and for the second-tier iPhone, rather than keep selling the 5, they made a new model, the plastic-case 5C.
3. By all accounts, iPhone X has been selling marvelously. If Apple is stopping to make it, it’s most likely to start selling a newer version.
   Moreover, they released a new ad for the iPhone X 2 days ago, on 21 January. Hardly what you do with a product you’ve already decided to cancel.

Quite a few media outlets took Kuo's report (or other outlets' regurgitation of that report) and without digging down or providing any context, simply posted headlines like “Apple is canceling the iPhone X!” as if it’s been a flop.

Some may have simply misunderstood the news. In most cases, though, this is classic click-bait: a manifestation of the desperation to get more page views, writing whatever achieves that goal. If that means posting hysterical shit that they know not to be true, so be it.