The first iPhone 18 Pro victims emerge

iPhone, is it really 18?

作者：李東陽

Twelve years ago, Hu Yifei picked up a mobile phone that looked like a rolling pin and asked with confusion on her face: “How to use this Crazy 18?”

At that time, iPhone 6 had just been released, and “iPhone 18” sounded like該很Far away, the screenwriter arranged for it a holographic projection, a QQ portal, and a screen long enough to cover half of the face.

Who would have thought,當iPhone 18 is really here. There is no rolling pin, no portal, and no cutting-edge technology.

But the first batch of people started to enjoy the benefits in reverse.。

Some people bought a new phone for more than 10,000 yuan, but scratches were found as soon as they were unpacked; some people migrated the data, and the phone was as hot as if it had just been taken out of a hot pot; some people rushed to the top of the line and spent more than 20,000 yuan to buy the 2TB version, and finally discovered that Apple may have quietly moved the knife in a place that you can barely see.

What’s even worse is that another group of people lost hundreds of thousands of dollars before they even used their mobile phones. Apple’s new generation of phones has just been released for about ten days, and it has already caused confusion among consumers, scalpers, and mobile phone merchants.

Did the first party enjoy the blessing?

To be fair, Apple is indeed a little more generous with the iPhone 18 Pro generation than before.

The A20 Pro with 2nm process, variable aperture, stronger battery life, and faster charging are a few things that everyone has been chasing after Apple in the past few years, and this time it has made up for it a lot.

But anyone familiar with Apple knows that it never makes you happy too early.

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As soon as the first batch of machines arrived in the hands of users, problems arose.

Someone opened the package and found that the back panel already had small scratches; the display machine in the store had only been used for a few days, and it had a “second-hand 90% new” quality in advance.；When someone migrated data from an old mobile phone, they found that the phone was noticeably hot, even lagging and restarting.

As for the glare and ghosting when shooting night scenes, they have not completely disappeared because of the addition of variable aperture in this generation.

But these are actually not the most interesting. After all, you can see the scratches, you can touch the heat, and you can tell by taking a photo of the ghost.

Note: Xiaohongshu@數碼頓悟

The thing that really makes many people break their defenses is hidden inside their mobile phones.

According to the disassembly information cited by many media, the 256GB and 512GB versions of the iPhone 18 Pro series mainly use TLC flash memory; the 1TB version has a mix of TLC and QLC, while the 2TB version is exposed to use QLC particles. Apple officials have not publicly labeled the flash memory particles used in different capacities.

Just understand it simply: QLC has higher capacity density and lower cost, but is generally not as good as TLC in terms of sustained writing capability and theoretical durability. Of course, through caching and system optimization, Apple can make it difficult to feel the obvious difference in most daily use scenarios.

The controversy lies precisely here. Whether there is any difference in use is one thing. Spending more money to buy lower-cost particles is another matter.

Especially the large-capacity version, which is Apple’s most profitable area.

The consumption logic of normal people is: I spend more money, and you give me more materials.

In the past, people complained about Apple’s “precise knife skills”, saying that 128GB is not enough and 256GB is too expensive.

Now this knife has begun to cut into places that consumers can’t even see.

The real losers are those who bet on Apple’s price increase

However, compared with other groups of people, consumers who spend 10,000 to 20,000 yuan to buy mobile phones may not be considered the biggest victims this time.

Before the new product was released, a mobile phone dealer in Zhengzhou did something that now seems quite bold: spending more than 2.18 million yuan to buy 230 units of the 256GB iPhone 17 Pro Max in three batches.

Of course, he is not planning to pay benefits to the company’s employees, but he is taking a gamble.

In the past many years, Apple has had a relatively mature channel strategy before and after the release of new products: new phones are released, the previous generation Pro is removed from the official website, the market stock is reduced, and the prices of some popular old models may rise in a short period of time.

The mobile phone dealer eats the difference in price these days. According to his calculation, as long as the price of one phone increases by 500 yuan and 230 mobile phones are rotated, he can earn more than 100,000 yuan in three to five days.

Put in 2.18 million and get a profit of more than 100,000. If you bet correctly, it will be a car.

As a result, this year, Apple did not follow the script, and the 17 Pro series was indeed removed from the official website. However, offline stores and e-commerce platforms began to reduce prices and subsidize, and low-priced goods continued to impact the wholesale market.

This businessman has sold 46 machines at a loss on each; the remaining 184 machines are still in hand. Calculated based on the market conditions at that time, the actual loss plus book floating losses exceeded 130,000 yuan.

I originally planned to make hundreds of thousands in three to five days, but in the last three to five days I lost hundreds of thousands.

The Apple press conference is over. He did not wait for freedom of wealth, but only waited for more than 2 million in inventory.

This is not simply a case of betting on the wrong price. Behind the scenes, the iPhone channel business is actually changing.

In the past, new products meant scarcity, scarcity meant price increases, and price increases meant scalpers, channel dealers, and restockers all made profits.

Nowadays, e-commerce platforms are becoming more and more generous in subsidies, and price information is becoming more and more transparent. New phones have not even been officially distributed on a large scale, and consumers already know where they can get hundreds or even thousands of dollars cheaper.

Everyone is becoming more and more accustomed to one thing, not being able to grab the first one、官網太貴、It’s not cheap this year, so just wait.

For ordinary consumers, this is certainly a good thing.

For those who rely on the market trends of the past three days, it is a bit fatal.

18 Pro is no longer popular, everyone rushes to Duo again

If we draw the conclusion that Apple is dead, it would be too early.

Because just when people on the iPhone 18 Pro side are discussing whether it’s broken and whether scalpers are worth it, on the other side, Apple’s first foldable screen iPhone Duo has been hyped like crazy.

This mobile phone has not even been officially delivered on a large scale, and the first pre-order on the second-hand platform has already opened in advance.

A previous investigation by China Business News found that many merchants offered price increases ranging from 1,000 yuan to 5,000 yuan, and some even posted an exaggerated price of 99,000 yuan – of course, the page did not show the actual transaction.

It’s very interesting that some people are already planning to make back the money they lost on iPhone 17 on iPhone Duo.

At the same time, Duo himself is not without controversy.

The crease problem that cannot be avoided by folding screens has become the focus of discussion in advance. Apple officially emphasizes reducing the visibility of the crease through the nano-texture surface, hinge and screen structure, but does not claim that it is completely crease-free.

Whether it can eventually become the next scalper machine remains to be seen after it is actually delivered.

But the scariest thing about Apple may be here. The iPhone 18 Pro can be scolded, the flash memory can be removed, the price of old models can be reduced, and scalpers can even lose money.

But as soon as it pulls out a new thing, everyone’s attention will gather around it again.

Twelve years ago, when “Love Apartment” imagined iPhone 18, people were looking forward to a mobile phone from the future.

Twelve years later, we have really waited for iPhone 18.

The most noteworthy result is not what the mobile phone can become. Some people spent 20,000 yuan to buy the top configuration, some people spent 2.18 million yuan betting on the market, and some people just lost money on 17 and started to study how much Duo can increase the price.

Apple doesn’t even need to create a revolution every time. As long as it can still make one group of people line up, one group of people complain, one group of people lose money, and another group of people think about how to make money from it, the business has not lost its magic.

There have been doubts about Apple losing its innovative power over the years. In fact, Hu Yifei has already given the answer. As long as holographic projection and portal are arranged, Apple fans will not be as hesitant as they are now.

*Disclaimer: This article is the independent opinion of the author and does not represent the position of i Dark Horse.

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時間：November 1-6

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