Apple's 2018 iPhones could be more successful

[Nergal]

 

Apple's 2018 iPhones could be more successful than the company's previous three generations

The iPhone X, 8, and 8 Plus sold well, but their sequels could do a lot better

Almost everything is in place for undoubtedly the most highly anticipated smartphone launch event of the fall. Granted, Apple still hasn’t started sending out press invites for next month’s jam-packed hardware shindig. As such, the date is not etched in stone just yet.

A little confusion also continues to surround the actual commercial release timing of the three new iPhones, as various reputable analysts and trusted insiders claim the lower-cost 6.1-inch LCD version could come a tad late to market.

Meanwhile, even though a number of important design changes and performance improvements are in the pipeline this year, the truly radical iPhone family upgrade is widely expected to happen in 2019.

But that’s not going to stop Apple from selling a boatload of 2018 models, at least according to unnamed “industry sources” cited by the hit-and-miss Taiwanese publication Digitimes. Certain pundits apparently expect shipments of the “new iPhone series” to hit anywhere between 70 and 75 million units. By the end of the year alone.

That’s a crazy high number, even by Apple’s regularly impressive standards, and if the Cupertino-based tech giant can pull it off, it would reportedly mark the best year-end performance of a newly released iFamily since 2014’s iPhone 6.

Of course, the iPhone X was similarly expected to break every sales record known to man roughly this time last year, and needless to say that wasn’t exactly the case. As always, a number of key Apple partners, parts suppliers, and contract electronics manufacturers are relying heavily on the success of the new iPhone generation for their own financial stability and prosperity, including TSMC, Foxconn, and Pegatron.

If these iPhone X sequels will indeed prove as popular as anticipated, the three companies can obviously expect record sales and profits of their own. Just in case it wasn’t already crystal clear, TSMC is reportedly in charge of the 7nm-based Apple A12 processor (as well as Huawei’s Kirin 980 and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 855 SoCs), while Foxconn has most likely landed the lion’s share of assembly orders for the two higher-margin OLED 2018 iPhone variants.