While the iPhone X is finally in stock consistently, we still haven’t seen any deals or discounts on Apple’s $1,000 flagship phone. There have been great offers on the iPhone 8, including some current buy-one-get-one-free deals, but if you want an iPhone X, you’re stuck paying full price.
That’s the bad news. The good news is that according to one analyst, the bleak iPhone X deal landscape could be about to get much better.
Wells Fargo Securities analyst Jennifer Fritzsche sent a note to investors over the weekend, seen by Fierce Wireless, that implies iPhone X deals are coming soon. Analysts, who are looking for value in stocks, aren’t particularly excited about the prospect of aggressive promotions. From the perspective of shareholders, one or two wireless carriers starting promotions is bad, as it means all four carriers will end up offering some kind of promotional pricing, which in turn drives down profits.
“Checks still show a fairly rational competitive pricing environment—even with better supply from the iPhone X,” Fritzsche wrote. “This last part is key as we were worried that once greater supplies of the device was seen—then the craziness would begin…. The key question is will this last in Q1 when the iPhone X supply continues to improve. Something to watch for sure (especially knowing our little magenta friends tend to get more aggressive in Q1 if history is any guide!).”
It might be bad for profits, but some kind of iPhone X price war would be fantastic for consumers, and also Apple’s bottom line. Carriers end up swallowing the cost of deals and sales, so from Apple’s perspective, a competition to see who can offer the best iPhone X deal, funded by wireless carriers, is an ideal situation.
As Fritzsche notes, T-Mobile is the most likely culprit to start a price war on the iPhone X next year. Verizon and AT&T are happy with the status quo, and Sprint is taking a step back from aggressive pricing to focus on building out its network right now. T-Mobile is still in the process of trying to expand its customer base at speed, and an iPhone X promotion — which would probably require customers to open a new line or port in service — would be the best way of doing it.
