Is Apple planning to kill the original iPhone X?

When Tim Cook revealed the iPhone X at the September Apple event, he described it as “the future of the smartphone”.

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In the purely literal sense, that was true, in that it was released two months later – but in the more figurative, its legacy looks considerably less peachy. A source with a long history of successfully predicting Apple’s movements has predicted that the iPhone X will be killed off in the summer – the first Apple-flavoured handset to die after a generation since the iPhone 5C.

While most flagship Apple handsets live on to become the cheaper model the following year, it looks like the iPhone X will not get this gentle retirement. The source, via AppleInsider, is KGI Securities’ analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who blames disappointing sales of the £999 smartphone. The sales are said to be particularly sluggish in China, where bigger-screened smartphones are more popular. So it’s back to the drawing board for a more appealing design.

To be clear, the iPhone X’s legacy is still likely to endure, even if the phone itself doesn’t. Kuo believes that Apple is due to announce three new smartphones in September, including a 5.8in second-generation iPhone X, a 6.5in iPhone X Plus and a 6.1in follow-up to the iPhone SE complete with Face ID. That would be quite a turnaround, given the original SE was designed to be more compact for smaller pockets.

Kuo forecasts that Apple is due a modest 5% growth in the first half of the year, but is optimistic this will rise to 10% when the 2018 models are released – chiefly because he believes the rumoured devices will appeal more to Chinese tastes. If this is indeed the case, the original iPhone X will be gone, but definitely not forgotten – at least by the Apple accounts department.