Is the iPhone XR Unfairly Maligned? (Premium)

It’s been the best-selling iPhone since it launched in October. But the iPhone XR is, for some reason, still tainted by a sense of failure.

That’s not necessarily a paradox. We have multiple reports proving that the iPhone XR has underperformed when compared to Apple’s expectations. And Apple has indeed cut the production of this handset to meet the new normal. But the iPhone XR isn’t alone: The iPhone XS and XS Max have also underperformed, and their production has likewise been cut too.

Since then, Apple has doubled the trade-in value of older iPhones and has introduced lower monthly payment plans for newer iPhones to help prop up sales. We’ll see how effective these efforts are when Apple announces its earnings today, but it’s clear that Apple did everything it could over the past few months to shore up revenues as much as possible. Witness the never-ending sales on iPads, Macs, and other Apple products on non-Apple sites like Amazon.com. Well, almost everything. It could have reversed the 20 percent price hike it instituted in 2018, which I dubbed Apple Jacks. That Apple was the biggest victim of its own strategy is, yes, ironic.

But let’s focus today on the iPhone XR.

My initial analysis of Apple’s September 2018 iPhone announcement was that the iPhone XR was the sweet spot of the new lineup. Compared to the far more expensive iPhone XS and XS Max, the iPhone XR has a few major differences. Its display is made from older LCD technology which requires a backlight that necessitates a larger bezel. Its rear camera system utilizes just a single lens, unlike the dual-camera system we see in the XS and XS Max. Those are literally the only negatives.

There are other differences, of course. For example, the XR’s body is made of aluminum, not stainless steel, a cost-cutting measure that I don’t believe undermines the devices premium nature in any way. And the iPhone XR offers some advantages over its more expensive siblings: Where the XS and XS Max memory choices jump inexplicably from 64 GB to 256 GB, you can outfit an XR with 64, 128, or 256 GB, saving money and arriving at a more reasonable storage allotment.

These factors, combined with the iPhone XR’s much lower pricing, explain my “sweet spot” comments. Where the iPhone XR starts at $750---I almost wrote “just $750” there before regaining my senses; these are still very expensive handsets for most people----compared to $1000 for the iPhone XS (and an insane $1100 for the iPhone XS Max.

Can you live with bigger bezels, an LCD display, and a single camera system? Or would you pay $250 more for the iPhone XS’s smaller (but still quite noticeable) bezels, slightly superior display, and dual-camera system?

Maybe that’s the wrong question.

With people holding on to iPhones for 3 years or more now, no one should buy the base unit. So the real price differential between the iPhone XR and XS is $350. That’s because an upgraded iPhone ...