‘ Fanatics’ likely to wait for iPhone X

Some lines expected for iPhone 8, 8 Plus

Apple fans eager to get their hands on the latest, hottest new iPhone probably won’t be camping in hordes on sidewalks this week.

Two new iPhones, the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus, will be released Friday. But it appears the early adopters are waiting for November, when the topofthe- line $ 999 iPhone X comes to stores.

“There will be some lines,” says Gene Munster, an investor and analyst with Loup Ventures in Minneapolis. “The fanatics will wait.”

The shipping delays for the new phones are 1- 2 weeks, compared with 2- 3 weeks the week beforethe release of the iPhone 7 Plus in 2016, and 3- 4 weeks for the iPhone 6 in 2014, says Munster, who has tracked Apple’s shipping delays on its website for the past few years.

Early reviews are in sync. USA TODAY’s Edward C. Baig said he would skip the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus ($ 699 to $ 949) and hold out for iPhone X. The

Wall Street Journal’s Geoffrey Fowler said the “best thing about iPhone 8 is that it’s entirely avoidable.”

Munster says that despite the lower expected sales for the new iPhones, he still expects Apple to see a 10% bump in overall iPhone sales this quarter. He says more of the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus ( 25%) will sell, compared with 20% sales contributed by the iPhone X. The rest will be older iPhones, which have lower prices. The SE starts at $ 349.

Apple CEO Tim Cook defended the pricing of the iPhone X on ABC’s Good

Morning, America on Tuesday. The most expensive iPhone ever, starting at $ 999, is in fact a “value price,” Cook said, because of the new technologies added to it.