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I think Apple hit a point where producing an exclusive phone with top features in every department wasn't really possible anymore at their scale. We've seen the

by dep_b 9y ago

I think Apple hit a point where producing an exclusive phone with top features in every department wasn't really possible anymore at their scale. We've seen them stuck at 16GB for a really long time simply because upgrading all phones to 32GB would consume another whopping 15% of the SSD market. OLED screens in that quality and format aren't produced in enough quantities to put on every iPhone - yet. But people expect an iPhone to be the best of the best given the price. So there's a new X line that will have all the best of the best and the regularly numbered ones below it will have more mainstream features / design and will be produced in greater numbers.

trimbo 9y ago
> OLED screens in that quality and format aren't produced in enough quantities to put on every iPhone Apple's scale is amazing but I don't really get this observation. Is this is because Samsung has been shipping OLED at Apple-level volumes for years, so they've already sucked up most of the supply?
- dep_b 9y ago
  Not every Samsung with an OLED screen gets the same OLED as the Note 8 and Edge 8 are getting of course. There are plenty of phones that have a much simpler construction similar to what Apple was doing with their LCD technology. And basically Samsung is not going to cut their own production to sell to Apple. Samsung is Samsung's preferred customer I imagine, unless the phone department seriously lowballs their offer.
- ascagnel_ 9y ago
  It's that Samsung/LG don't have the production capacity to make OLED screens at the volumes Apple will need to put it on a mass-market phone. To give you an idea of the discrepancy: Samsung's two flagship phones (S8/S8 Edge) sold roughly 12MM in their first quarter of availability (April-June 2017), while the current iPhone models sold 40+ million units in their third quarter of availability (same time frame).

by dep_b 9y ago

trimbo 9y ago

> OLED screens in that quality and format aren't produced in enough quantities to put on every iPhone Apple's scale is amazing but I don't really get this observation. Is this is because Samsung has been shipping OLED at Apple-level volumes for years, so they've already sucked up most of the supply?

dep_b 9y ago
Not every Samsung with an OLED screen gets the same OLED as the Note 8 and Edge 8 are getting of course. There are plenty of phones that have a much simpler construction similar to what Apple was doing with their LCD technology. And basically Samsung is not going to cut their own production to sell to Apple. Samsung is Samsung's preferred customer I imagine, unless the phone department seriously lowballs their offer.
ascagnel_ 9y ago
It's that Samsung/LG don't have the production capacity to make OLED screens at the volumes Apple will need to put it on a mass-market phone. To give you an idea of the discrepancy: Samsung's two flagship phones (S8/S8 Edge) sold roughly 12MM in their first quarter of availability (April-June 2017), while the current iPhone models sold 40+ million units in their third quarter of availability (same time frame).