Extra Small iPhone
Wojciech R. Bolanowski, MD PhD
Chief AI Officer, retail and digital banking, payments and fintech in EU, GCC, SEA, enthusiast of cross-border banking
Dont't you think that new iPhone naming went a bit too weird? Or I am the only one who got confused with high-end smartphone marked as a plain T-shirt of extra small size? But first things first: let's start with the bigger picture.
New iPhones introduced Sept. 12th 2018
So we already know how new iPhones will look like and what are their names, prices and new functions. Well, we can dispute all of that, but it is not extremely exciting. Don’t get me wrong – still presentations of new Apple’s devices are interesting. There is still a lot of feedback just after the event, but (and correct me, please, if I am wrong), this time it was not so much noise as before. Understandable – iPhone X was a really big leap; debutants of 2018 - not so much.
The name is the change
There is at least one area where Apple* has made substantial change – the names of new devices. The company has got rid of Arabic numerals which have been used for ten years, in its last eleven models (from iPhone 3 to iPhone 8). In fact, only original iPhone, iPhone SE and iPhone X did not follow the pattern. The great sales results of iPhone X is the clear reason for keeping “X” in the name of new phones.
From Arabic to Roman, from Plus to Max
During the announcement conference (Sept 12th, 2018) iPhone X was consequently pronounced as “iPhone ten”. In this case the “X” was definitively used as Roman numeral and the chances that the world will see one day iPhone XI are higher than ever. This is an answer for one of the questions I asked almost a year ago “next iPhone: 11 or XI?”. This is not the only change in a way Apple is naming its phones. It replaced the word “Plus” with “Max” for devices with biggest screens. The “Plus” worked fine for four years, when customers enjoyed iPhones 6 Plus, 7 Plus, and 8 Plus. I guess “Max” was used to point out, that new device has got the biggest screen in whole iPhone history. Well, but what happens when another generation will bring even wider screens? Will “Max” be used again or something new, more creative will be introduced? Another novelty is application of letter R to name the more affordable iPhone XR. This mystery was nicely disputed by Chris Matyszczyk in his interesting article “iPhone XR? What kind of name is that?”. My private guess is that "R" stands for "reduced" for iPhone XR is a bit less packed with technology than XS.
When S strikes back …
Having said a few words about new concepts, let me go back to old ones. I’ve already forgot the phenomenon of limited upgrades which Apple had applied for some of its iPhones in the past. I mean generations 3, 3G, 4, 5, and 6 with their upgraded succesors 3S, 3GS, 4S, 5S, and 6S, respectively. The lifespan of that standard was almost ten years, before it was abandoned three years ago. Now, surprisingly, it’s back. The upgraded iPhone X is called iPhone XS and its bigger clone - iPhone XS Max.
… and Apple challenges retail standard
Apple Inc., a company worth over billion dollars, can afford to label its smartphone “XS” which, generally, means Extra Small. In retail world, where clothing is an important part of merchandise, XS ever stood for smaller sizes. The regular customer buys new clothes much more frequently that new iPhones, right? It is rather justified hypothesis that more people are aware of the XS meaning (for clothes) than S meaning (for upgraded iPhones). Should I add that there is nothing good in extra small smartphone in 2018, when all producers tries to deliver the biggest screen they can? And iPhone XS is not supposed to be small, either. It is a regular device which value is not based on miniaturization, but efficiency, speed, memory capacity, and customer experience.
XS Max – new symbol of awkwardness?
At the end let me add, that new iPhone naming strategy went even more awkward in case of the bigger, “flagship” device. Just think about the reaction of those customers who see this weird combination “XS Max”. For them it is a pure oxymoron, for “Max” stands for something big, including oversized T-shirts. How something XS could be Max?
This is probably the most powerful proof that Apple still “thinks different”, but is the company right? We have to wait and see the business performance of new products. So far the price of Apple shares remains higher than before announcement of iPhone XS**.
Linguistic note:
Please help me improve my writing. Any comments concerning the language are welcome
*More about Apple:
Apple’s CEO reveals the company’s weaknesses!
I used to owe Apple at least 10% of inspiration
** update November 27th: it is not a case now, in 2.5 months' after the announcement.
Digital Channels, UX/UI, CRM and Data Science Department Director at Nest Bank
6 年Apple replaced plus to max because of one particular reason - previously we were getting something more than just a bigger screen - in iP6/6s there was an optical stabilization and in iP7/8 additional lens with portrait mode. Since this year we’re having exactly the same specs under the hood instead of form factor, so that’s why they simply stopped calling it Plus. I don’t know however, what ‘XR’ stands for or what would be the tactic in upcoming years, but I am keeping my fingers crossed to move rather into naming it just iPhone - as they did with iPad (2018)