https://planamag.com/the-iphone-x-apples-ideology-of-american-techno-exceptionalism-5a6643985c93

For well over a year, the global technology media has speculated about how Apple would “re-invent” the smartphone on the tenth anniversary of the introduction of the original iPhone. Anticipation was high and the pressure was on for Apple. As the company with the world’s deepest pockets, and the inventor of the modern smartphone, it’s virtually a modern tenet that the iPhone would always be the market-defining leader in both design and technology.

Yesterday, Apple unveiled two different iPhones in a confusing and bifurcated product launch: the iPhone 8, and the iPhone X (“10”). The iPhone 8 is essentially the iPhone 7S, as it retains the 7’s basic design and technology, with only incremental hardware and software upgrades. The iPhone X, on the other hand, was touted as if it were a phone from the future, a starship communicator from the 22nd century complete with an ultra-advanced OLED display and a bezel-less design. While the iPhone 8 is the phone for now, the iPhone X is the phone for tomorrow, and therefore Apple gave it a very advanced price tag: $999 for the 64GB model, and a jaw-dropping $1,149 for 256GB.