Hype is good, but too much hype can be a bad thing. Take the Apple iPhone 8 for instance. There are many months yet until the launch of the device, but the hype machine has already gone into overdrive. Based on this hype, a Barclays’ analyst has downgraded Apple’s price target by 1.6 percent.
Fortune reports the Mark Moskowitz, the aforementioned analyst, believes that Apple’s new phone will do little to “overcome the existing challenges” faced by Apple in the smartphone business.
The analyst also believes that Apple’s growth in China will continue to “splutter” this year.
The iPhone 8 will mark the tenth anniversary of the launch of the iPhone. Apple is widely expected to commemorate the occasion with an extra-special iPhone 8. The rumour-mill has suggested everything from an all-glass body with a curved display to a transparent iPhone. We’ve heard that the phone will ditch the fingerprint reader for facial recognition, that all physical buttons will be replaced with Force Touch and myriad other rumours.
As with the 2016 MacBook Pro, the excessive hype, years of rehashing the same design and the minimal performance improvements for the average consumer means that there’s nothing new on offer.
As the analyst points out, consumers are comfortable with opting for an older iPhone 6S over the current generation iPhone 7, which clearly offers very little over the 6S.
Apple is expected to come up with an iPhone 7S, 7S Plus and iPhone 8 this year; the S variants obviously being upgraded versions of the iPhone 7.
Speaking to industry sources, Moskowitz has learned that the outlook for iPhone revenue this year is “subdued”, reports Fortune. Wall Street expects a major boost in sales, however.
In Moskowitz’ view, Apple needs to focus on investing in India and expanding its Services business. Corporate and AI, he believes, also holds potential.
With Mobile World Congress just around the corner and a slew of innovative Android flagships lined up for the next few months, Apple certainly has its work cut out for itself.
