The iPhone X has arrived in Stettler, although in limited quantity.
The latest Apple smartphone launched earlier in November but wasn’t made available in Canada until Nov. 7. The latest generation of iPhone boasts to be the best yet at a cost of about a thousand dollars, making it one of the most expensive smartphones on the market.
Some of the new features on the iPhone X include water and dust resistance, facial recognition and a redesigned operating system.
The Stettler Independent called a few stores that sell smartphones to ask if the iPhone X had arrived and so far, only one carries them.
Spiral Mobility, an outlet for Bell Mobility, said on Nov. 7 that the phone hasn’t arrived yet but the store had ordered them and they should arrive soon.
Walmart employees weren’t so sure and say because of limited stock, there’s no guarantee it will hit their shelves.
Bond-O Communications, which is also an outlet for Telus Mobility, currently offers the 54 gigabyte iPhone X with the option of getting the much larger 256 gigabyte phone but that version is on order.
Krista Schlender, the owner of Stettler Mobile Solutions, said their store doesn’t have the smartphone just yet but the preorders are extensive. She explained she’s not able to say how many people have preordered because Apple has a strict policy on what information store who sell Apple products can and cannot release.
What is for certain is Stettler residents want the iPhone X, she said.
“It is the 10th anniversary edition of the iPhone and I think for Apple fans, it is going to be a game changing phone,” she said. “The iPhone 8 was introduced in September and we had people saying ‘I don’t even want to talk about the eight, I want to wait (for) the 10’.”
The main competitor to Apple has been Samsung with their Galaxy series of phones. The competition between the two is so fierce, Samsung recently put out a video slamming iPhone fans for being outdated.
Schlender said fans of either phone usually stick with what they know and added Samsung has a much larger percentage of the world market share at roughly 60 per cent compared to Apple, which is at about 33 per cent.
“It’s really preference based,” she said. “Samsung globally is the leader but iPhone is an ecosystem. Once you have an Apple, you do everything with Apple. Everything is designed to work together and everything flows seamlessly from your watch to your iPad, your Apple Air, your Mac Book Pro computer. Everything is tied together.”
The first iPhone had a significant cultural impact in addition to revolutionizing how people use phones and despite other smartphones being on the market not, Schlender believes Apple hasn’t lost its touch.
She said Apple is still a major player in Silicon Valley and continues to impact society in new and different ways.