Apple to launch 3 new iPhones soon

Apple is not only doubling down on the iPhone X, it's tripling down.

The world's most valuable company plans to launch three new phones soon that keep the edge-to-edge screen design of last year's flagship, according to people familiar with the matter. The devices will boast a wider range of prices, features and sizes to increase their appeal, said the sources, who asked not to be identified discussing unannounced products.

But none of the three iPhones will be wholly new designs like the iPhone X was last year or the iPhone 6 in 2014. The company is planning more significant changes for next year, they added.

The iPhone X wasn't as big a hit as some Wall Street analysts hoped for before it was released last November. But it still sold strongly and helped Apple gain share in a smartphone market that has almost stopped growing.

The upcoming phones, planned to be unveiled in September, show the company is adjusting its strategy. Rather than luring millions of new iPhone users, Apple's goal these days is to steadily raise average prices, while expanding the total number of active devices to support sales of accessories and digital services like streaming music and video.

The "real sizzle" for investors remains the iPhone because it's the hub for almost all of Apple's other offerings like the Apple Watch, AirPods and Apple Music, said Gene Munster, a veteran Apple analyst.

In early 2016, the company reported a new milestone: 1 billion active devices. By early this year, that number had grown to 1.3 billion. The three new iPhones due next month have a good chance to add to this important foundation of the company's future.

The big difference on the software side will be the ability to view content side-by-side in apps like Mail and Calendar. It will be Apple's second phone with a crisper organic light-emitting diode, or OLED, screen.

The average price of iPhones sold in Apple's most-recent quarter was $724, up 19 percent from a year earlier.

Perhaps the most significant phone will be a new, cheaper device destined to replace the iPhone 8. It will look like the iPhone X but include a nearly 6.1-inch screen, come in multiple colors and sport aluminum edges instead of the iPhone X's stainless steel casing. It will also have a cheaper LCD screen to keep costs down.

All three will have the gesture-based control system Apple introduced last year to replace the iPhone home button. They will also feature Face ID, Apple's system for unlocking the phones by glancing at them.