As promised, Apple will begin the pre-orders of the iPhone X on this Friday. KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo who is known for making accurate predictions on Apple devices had claimed that the company would be shipping 30 to 35 million iPhone X units by the end of this year. However, a new report that has surfaced just before the beginning of iPhone X pre-orders claims that only 20 million units will be shipped this year.
According to The Nikkei, Apple is struggling to resolve the technical glitches it is facing with regards to the components of the Face ID biometric recognition feature. The iPhone X is the first smartphone from the company to feature an OLED display. It has a u-shaped notch at the upper portion of the display to house the TrueDepth Camera system and Face ID sensor.
Apple had reportedly encountered problems in the bonding process of OLED panels while carrying out the mass production of iPhone X. The problem related to the OLED panels seems to have almost resolved by July, but the company has continued to face problems with the Face ID assembly. The publication claims that the production of the iPhone X could only improve by the end of September.
At present, the iPhone X production is going on at the rate of 10 million units per month. Since Apple is scheduled to begin the shipments on 3rd November, it will be able to ship only 20 million units by the end of 2017. Some reports state that Apple will only ship 2-3 million iPhone X units from Nov. 3. This number is quite low compared to 10 million units that the company makes available for shipping when a new iPhone arrives in the market.
During the launch event of iPhone X, Apple had proudly mentioned that the accuracy of Face ID is such that the probability of someone else unlocking it with face recognition is 1 in 1,000,000. A recent Bloomberg claims that Apple has managed to fix production issues of iPhone X by reducing the accuracy of Face ID. It remains to be seen that whether the reduction of Face ID’s accuracy will hamper the quality of the face scans.
Newer information suggests that in order to increase the production of certain components, Apple has already begun negotiating with other manufacturers. This indicates that the production of iPhone X is likely to improve significantly.
iPhone X Pricing and Availability
In the U.S, the 64 GB and 256 GB iPhone X models are respectively priced at $999 and $1,149. These models will be available with respectively monthly installments of $49.19 and $56.16 through Sprint, Verizon and T-Mobile. AT&T is providing the 64 GB and 256 GB iPhone X with respectively monthly payments of $33.34 and $38.3 that will last over a period of 30 months.
The pre-orders of the iPhone X will begin in 57 countries across the world from 27th October. Here is the list of countries that will be receiving the iPhone X:
Andorra, Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Greenland, Guernsey, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Ireland, Isle of Man, Italy, Japan, Jersey, Kuwait, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, UAE, the UK, the US and US Virgin Islands.
In India, the iPhone X with 64 GB and 256 GB storage will respectively cost Rs. 89,000 and Rs. 102,000.
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