iPhone XR name inspired by 'extra special' sports cars, says Phil Schiller

AppleInsider

Prior to the availability of the iPhone XR and after the pre-orders started, Apple's Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing Phil Schiller had an interview to talk about the road to the device, and why Apple made it so soon after the technology behind it debuted in the iPhone X.

iPhone X was in the works for many years

"We had this technology we were working on for many years to be the future of the iPhone," Schiller said to Engadget in an interview published on Monday. "It was a huge ask of the engineering team to get it to market last year, and they did. ... We knew that if we could bring that to market and it was successful very quickly after that, we needed to grow the line and make it available to more people."

And then, Tim Cook and Phil Schiller asked the engineering team to push the technology further, in only a year.

"If we're going to push the upper boundaries with XS and XS Max to make something the best, how do we make something that's more affordable for a larger audience, to make the overall iPhone audience even larger," asked Schiller. "What choices can we make and still make it a phone that people can hold and say, 'I have the best too'?"

Asked why the iPhone XR is this year and not last, or next, Schiller simply said that it was because the technology is ready now.

iPhone XR, iPhone XS and sports cars

Apple's "S" branding that has been in place since the iPhone 4S apparently derives from Schiller's love of race cars. When it was time to expand the iPhone lineup naming, Schiller tapped into that love even further.

"I love cars and things that go fast," said Schiller. "R and S are both letters used to denote sport cars that are really extra special."

Retina, OLED, and LCD

The iPhone XR has already taken some heat for not having a display quite as high-resolution as the iPhone X does. Schiller doesn't care about the echo chamber that seems to be developing surrounding it, saying that "the only way to judge a display is to look at it."

"If you can't see the pixels, at some point the numbers don't mean anything," said Schiller. "They're fairly arbitrary."

Schiller on product marketing

Schiller denies that Apple tries to shoehorn products into market segments, and rather builds a product and lets the consumers sort it out for themselves.

"We don't think about categories," he said. "We think the iPhone X technology and experience is something really wonderful, and we want to get it to as many people as possible, and we want to do it in a way that still makes it the best phone."

The $749 iPhone XR is powered by an A12 Bionic chip with newly updated Neural Engine. The chassis is made from 7000 series aluminum instead of surgical grade stainless steel, although both front and back are covered by glass panels.

It has an edge-to-edge screen, just like the iPhone XS, except instead of a Super Retina OLED, the iPhone XR includes a 6.1-inch Liquid Retina Display, which is an advanced LCD display. It also features Apple's updated Face ID, just like the iPhone X and iPhone XS, and comes packing the same wide-angle camera.

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robjn

The XR has taken heat for not having a high resolution display. Yet these are the facts:

XR has 4,451,328 sub pixels

XS has 4,111,968

This is because the OLEDs are pentile and define pixels differently. 

Each pixel on the XR can independently display any color. That’s not true for the XS.

XR shows same number of points as the XS MAX in a smaller package.

mr o

To me, the R stands for Rainbow.


>:x

tht

robjn said:

The XR has taken heat for not having a high resolution display. Yet these are the facts:

XR has 4,451,328 sub pixels

XS has 4,111,968

This is because the OLEDs are pentile and define pixels differently. 

Each pixel on the XR can independently display any color. That’s not true for the XS.

XR shows same number of points as the XS MAX in a smaller package.

Yeah, if you do the math, the color reproduction density of Apple’s 458 PPI OLED is about in the low 300 RGB PPI. That’s not a surprise they went for such a PPI number on the OLED models. Was really hoping Apple was going to use RGB OLEDs, like they did with the Watch OLED, which also happens to have PPI in the low 300 range.

The essential benefit for OLEDs is for video watching in low light environments, like in bed or dark rooms. If you do that a lot, it’s a nice plus. Otherwise, in regular lighting environments, they are about the same. Other big benefit for OLEDs is that they are thinner, resulting in thinner devices.

randominternetperson

It's really, really hard not to say/think "Ex-Es" and "Ex-Ar" when you see XS and XR.  Remind me why companies trot out Roman numerals every once in a while.

canukstorm

tht said:

robjn said:

The XR has taken heat for not having a high resolution display. Yet these are the facts:

XR has 4,451,328 sub pixels

XS has 4,111,968

This is because the OLEDs are pentile and define pixels differently. 

Each pixel on the XR can independently display any color. That’s not true for the XS.

XR shows same number of points as the XS MAX in a smaller package.

Yeah, if you do the math, the color reproduction density of Apple’s 458 PPI OLED is about in the low 300 RGB PPI. That’s not a surprise they went for such a PPI number on the OLED models. Was really hoping Apple was going to use RGB OLEDs, like they did with the Watch OLED, which also happens to have PPI in the low 300 range.

The essential benefit for OLEDs is for video watching in low light environments, like in bed or dark rooms. If you do that a lot, it’s a nice plus. Otherwise, in regular lighting environments, they are about the same. Other big benefit for OLEDs is that they are thinner, resulting in thinner devices.

If that's the case, why even bother with OLED in the first place and just implement Liquid Retina Display across the board?

hentaiboy

Ford was particularly enamoured of the XR moniker for its warmed over hatchbacks back in the 80s:

tht

canukstorm said:

tht said:

robjn said:

The XR has taken heat for not having a high resolution display. Yet these are the facts:

XR has 4,451,328 sub pixels

XS has 4,111,968

This is because the OLEDs are pentile and define pixels differently. 

Each pixel on the XR can independently display any color. That’s not true for the XS.

XR shows same number of points as the XS MAX in a smaller package.

Yeah, if you do the math, the color reproduction density of Apple’s 458 PPI OLED is about in the low 300 RGB PPI. That’s not a surprise they went for such a PPI number on the OLED models. Was really hoping Apple was going to use RGB OLEDs, like they did with the Watch OLED, which also happens to have PPI in the low 300 range.

The essential benefit for OLEDs is for video watching in low light environments, like in bed or dark rooms. If you do that a lot, it’s a nice plus. Otherwise, in regular lighting environments, they are about the same. Other big benefit for OLEDs is that they are thinner, resulting in thinner devices.

If that's the case, why even bother with OLED in the first place and just implement Liquid Retina Display across the board?

Because people are willing to pay more for OLED black levels, higher saturation, thinner devices, smaller bezel devices, etc. If MicroLED pans out, I expect the industry will move to that. Might be the only way for Apple to get iPhones back under 7 mm.

tht

hentaiboy said:

Ford was particularly enamoured of the XR moniker for its warmed over hatchbacks back in the 80s:

You know, this Escort looks better to my eyes than many of the latter day Escort models. This one basically looks like a taller Mustang of the same era, or near the same era.

Btw, does this thing have a backseat? No headrests on the backseat bench? Further, no seatbelts? This model is really from the 70s?

chasm

"If you can't see the pixels, at some point the numbers don't mean anything," said Schiller. "They're fairly arbitrary." — TRUTH.

fastasleep

I admit I was one of the people a little confused by the lineup this year, but unsurprisingly I’m increasingly convinced they nailed it. No matter which of the three models you buy, you’re getting an awesome iPhone. Apple makes more money with the higher ASP. The price holdouts can still stay a gen behind with the 8. Everyone wins. 

bestkeptsecret

This is one lineup I wish I had one of each! If not for all colours, at least one model in any colour!