Amidst a slew of conflicting reports surrounding the forthcoming iPhone 8, a new research note from JP Morgan analyst Rod Hall relays that Apple’s next-gen iPhone will hit store shelves in September, albeit in limited quantities. If accurate, this is somewhat promising news given that a handful of other analysts believe that the iPhone 8 may not see the light of day until October.
“Importantly, we do not believe that Apple’s production schedule is still changing materially with most current delay reports simply dated reverberations of decisions Apple made back in the spring,” Hall said in a note obtained by CNBC. “We expect a small amount of late September EMS [electronics manufacturing service] output for the Pro model and then ramping production through October with target output levels achieved in late October/early November.”
Given a relatively small supply at launch, Hall anticipates that Apple will sell 42.2 million iPhone units during the upcoming September quarter, a slight decline from the 45.4 million units Apple sold during the September quarter last year. Once Apple gets a handle on supply, Hall, like many other analysts, believes that iPhone sales will experience a discernible spike and that Apple will see iPhone sales growth throughout 2018.
Incidentally, this isn’t the first report we’ve seen this week regarding a slow iPhone 8 roll out. Taking a similar position, analysts from BlueFin Research Partners recently issued a note to investors claiming that Apple’s available supply of iPhone 8 units for the September quarter will be limited to just 5 million units.
As far as price is concerned, Hall is expecting Apple’s entry-level iPhone 8 model with 128GB of storage to start at $1,100. The next model up will likely house 256GB of storage and will — if history is any indication — retail for $1,200. As a point of reference, the entry-level iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus models cost $649 and $769, respectively.
Without question, the iPhone 8 will be the most expensive iPhone model we’ve ever seen, largely due to the increased cost of components the device will feature such as a large OLED display and advanced 3D camera sensors on the back.
