Amidst leaks of slowdown in iPhone XR and XS production, Apple is now reportedly slashing the iPhone XR’s price in Japan.
Many users are still buying newer iPhones nowadays, but they are not upgrading to the XR. Users are choosing last year’s iPhone 8 instead. For many, the Apple iPhone XR doesn’t seem to be worth its price tag, mainly because it has much less impressive features compared to the other two new iPhone models (XS and XS Pro). iPhone XR is also more expensive than older well-loved models like the iPhone 8. So in order to salvage their 46.7% share of Japan’s smartphone market, Apple is offering subsidies as form of discounts to Japanese carriers.
Apple would also resurrect iPhone X production to meet certain contractual obligations to its OLED screen supplier, Samsung. Because of the the lower demand for XR, the OLED screens reserved for the models would instead be used for the X production.