IPhone X to be available in early November
MUSCAT: Apple’s new iPhone X will not be available in Oman until early November and iPhone 8 before the end of September, dealers said on Wednesday.
Customers will be able to order iPhone X beginning Friday, October 27, with availability beginning Friday, November 3, in several places in the world, including the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. “So we should get in Oman within a week after it is released in the GCC,” the dealers said.
Customers will be able to order the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus beginning Friday, September 15, and which will be available in the UAE from September 22. “So we can also expect iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus in the Oman market by the end of September,” they said.
Meanwhile, dealers said they are getting a lot of enquiries after Apple Inc. on Tuesday rolled out its much-anticipated iPhone X, a glass and stainless steel device with an edge-to-edge display that Chief Executive Tim Cook called “the biggest leap forward since the original iPhone.” “We received more than 20 calls from customers enquiring about the new phones, and some gave me their numbers so that we can contact them when we receive the first batch of iPhones,” a dealer said.
Dealers are, however, not sure about the cost. “We are not sure about the cost, but we expect that the iPhone 8 will be around OMR300, and the iPhone X will cost between OMR400 to OMR750,” he added.
The new Apple Watch for the first time will be able to make calls and access the internet without the customer carrying an iPhone— a major upgrade that one analyst predicted would more than double watch sales.
The iPhone X has wireless charging, an infrared camera and hardware for facial recognition, which replaces the fingerprint sensor for unlocking the phone. The home button is also gone, and users instead tap the device to wake it up. The screen on the iPhone X is about the size of the current iPhone 7 plus, though the phone is smaller.