There haven’t been many exciting carrier deals on the iPhone X so far. Last month, T-Mobile launched a buy-one, get-one (BOGO) deal on the iPhone X. Under the offer, you could buy two iPhone X handsets and the magenta carrier would give you $700 rebate on the second device. Now T-Mobile has announced a new deal that slashes $200 off the iPhone X’s retail price. The deal is worth checking out if you have been planning to buy the iPhone X.
Starting Friday, February 23rd, you’ll be able to enjoy $200 off the purchase of the iPhone X, iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone 7 and 7 Plus. You have to trade-in an eligible smartphone to take advantage of the offer. The phones eligible for trade-in include Samsung’s Galaxy S8 series and Galaxy S7 series, LG’s V30 series, and Apple’s iPhone 7 series and iPhone 6S series. You’ll get the $200 off on top of the value of your trade-in device.
T-Mobile will give you back the value of your trade-in handset via a one-time bill credit or a store credit. The extra $200 will arrive in the mail within eight weeks in the form of a prepaid MasterCard. The deal seems lucrative because you are getting $200 prepaid MasterCard on top of the value of your trade-in phone. But you have to keep in mind that carriers don’t always offer the best trade-in credits. They almost always undervalue trade-in smartphones badly.
For instance, trading in a 32GB iPhone 7 will get you $122 on T-Mobile (the $200 credit is on top of this amount). In contrast, the same 32GB iPhone 7 will get you $235 on Gazelle and $285 on Apple. T-Mobile’s deal is better than those of Apple and Gazelle if you combine the trade-in value with the $200 credit ($200+$122). You wouldn’t feel short-changed if you trade-in an older iPhone such as the iPhone 6S because the trade-in value of older smartphones tends to be closer to their actual resale value.
T-Mobile requires you to buy the iPhone X on its 24-month Equipment Installment Plan. The carrier said you could also combine the new offer with its free line promotion from Valentine’s Day, which is still running. As part of the free line deal, T-Mobile gives you a second line for free when you add a line to T-Mobile One family plan.
T-Mobile is also running a lucrative offer on the Apple Watch Series 3. If you and someone you know are in the market to buy Apple’s Series 3 Watch, T-Mobile could be one of the best places to buy. If you purchase the Apple Watch Series 3, you’ll get 50% off (up to $215) on the second one. “Gift it or keep both – no shame in the double-wristing game!” said T-Mobile. The company hasn’t offered any further details on the deal yet. The Series 3 costs $329 for the GPS version and $399 for the GPS+cellular version.
The iPhone X sales haven’t been as good as Apple and its investors were hoping. According to market research firm Canalys, the company sold 29 million iPhone X units during the holiday quarter. Tim Cook has even claimed that the anniversary iPhone was the top-selling model in every week since its launch on November 3rd. The phone comes with a bezel-less 5.8-inch OLED screen, Face ID, and Animoji features.
Industry analysts have learned from supply chain sources that the iPhone X sales have fallen dramatically following the end of the holiday season. Apple has reportedly asked its suppliers to cut iPhone X production by as much as 50% for the current quarter. Earlier this week, Nikkei Asian Review said that Samsung Display has reduced OLED screen production for iPhone X from 45-50 million units to just 20 million units for the January-March quarter. Samsung is the sole supplier of OLED panels for the iPhone X.
Apple sold 77.4 million iPhones in October-December 2017, down from 78.3 million units sold in the same period a year prior. Despite selling fewer iPhones, Apple’s revenues went up due to the iPhone X’s higher price. Though the company has slashed production for the current quarter, it hasn’t yet determined the production target for the April-June quarter. Nikkei believes that the iPhone X sales will likely nosedive in the April-June period.
Apple is preparing to launch three new iPhones in the second half of this year, and all of them will look similar to the iPhone X. According to Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities, the company will release a 5.8-inch second-gen iPhone X, a 6.5-inch iPhone X Plus, and an LCD iPhone with a 6.1-inch display. All of them will have a bezel-less design and the top cutout.
Since the LCD iPhone would be the cheapest of the three (costing between $700 and $800), it would launch without the 3D Touch functionality. It would also have only 3GB RAM and a single camera on the back. The other two models would feature 4GB RAM and a dual camera setup on the back. Both the OLED variants would cost above $1,000.
