The real reason Apple is now selling 7 different iPhones at once

The iPhone lineup is bigger than ever. Here's why that's a great idea.

Apple Announcement Event with iPhone models
(Image credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

When most companies launch new products, they usually need to convince people they can't live without them. But Apple has a slightly different problem: How does the most successful company of all time keep on selling iPhones? After all, much of the market is saturated with iPhones already. The challenge now becomes getting iPhones into the hands of those who don't yet have them. And at Apple's Cupertino iPhone event this week, we learned how the company plans to do that: by including more iPhones in its lineup than ever before.

For the first time, Apple is releasing three new phones at once: the iPhone XS, the successor to the iPhone X; the iPhone XS Max, a larger screen version of the XS; and the iPhone XR, a cheaper model that has a lower quality screen and is missing features, like a second camera and 3D Touch. In addition, the company will continue to sell the iPhone 7 and 8, each in two sizes. In other words, Apple will soon be offering seven different iPhones at the same time.

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Navneet Alang

Navneet Alang is a technology and culture writer based out of Toronto. His work has appeared in The Atlantic, New Republic, Globe and Mail, and Hazlitt.