It was rather peculiar to see both iPhone 8 and the iPhone X to be released during the same quarter. To make it further strange, iPhone X was never a part of the deal for 2017; in an interview with Mashable, in which the making of the new iPhone was discussed, it was apparent that the iPhone X was originally meant to be the Apple’s flagship phone for 2018!
Originally meant to be released the upcoming year, the SVP of hardware engineering at Apple, Dan Riccio, put his opinion on how the bezel-free iPhone X got pushed up a whole year courtesy “ a lot of hard work, talent, grit, and determination, we were able to deliver them this year.”
Due to the quite short timetable which Apple had to work in, according to Riccio, once Apple set in, there was no going back. It couldn’t second guess their decisions. This is in negation to the reports which stated that instead of the much appreciated FaceID, Apple was going to implement a fingerprint sensor instead embedded in the display.
In reality, according to Riccio “we spent no time looking at putting fingerprints on the back or through the glass or on the side,”. This means that Apple had already confirmed the design of the X within around last November, and was going to go through it no matter what.
The facial recognition featuring iPhone X is the first bezel-free iPhone and therefore has surely come up at the right time, where the likes of Samsung Galaxy S8, LG V30, and other flagships had already implement a bezel-free display trend.
Therefore, Apple decided to catch on the new trend, capitalizing on it earlier rather than regretting it later by not. It is safe to say that this move by Apple might actually be beneficial for the company since people were tired to see the same iPhone without major redesign but with just some better specs under the hood every year.
With the iPhone X’s first batch shipping this week, time is going to tell whether it actually holds out for its worth.