This weekend, Samsung announced its plans for the Galaxy S9 and S9+ smartphone - a speedy update to its Galaxy 8 complete with improved cameras and what they're calling AR Emoji, an obvious take on Apple's face-gesture-based Emojis.
It's also clearly aimed at the same high-end smartphone market that Apple went after with its iPhone X, both in terms of features and price. At $790 for the base model or $915 for the "plus" version, it comes in just under the roughly $1,000 that Apple commands for the entry-level iPhone X.
It will be interesting to see what — if any — effect the new Samsung phone has on sales. But in the meantime, we took a look at how well the iPhone X has been selling at Best Buy, where Apple sells more iPhones than any other retail vendor.
Right at launch, we see a sharp spike in ranking in November for all iPhone X models. The New Year saw a gradual increase leading to what appears to be a downslope in ranking as we move into spring and summer 2018.
As for which iPhone X is selling better at Best Buy, the cheaper 64-gigabyte model has a slight edge. This is probably due to the fact that the 64GB version comes in at $999 compared to the $1,149 that the 256GB version commands. With more consumers moving to cloud storage, on-device memory capacity is becoming less important.
Apple's plans for the future of iPhone X are unclear, with some analysts expecting the Cupertino company to end its short run as just a special edition. Chances are we'll know for sure next fall when Apple holds its annual keynote when, in the past, it has launched enhanced versions of its phones.
