Originally Posted by
Kerosene Kraut
Not sure how right Boeing was. They developed the 747-8 believing in the big quad's future themselves.
Concerning the A380 as a freighter: FedEx and UPS had ordered (firm) factory build A380 freighters back then until Airbus cancelled that version during their electrical wiring "harness mess".
Boeing built the 747-8 to take market share from the A380, and to maintain the dominance of the 747 Freighter (remember, the 747-8F was the launch aircraft and entered service first - the passenger version was almost an afterthought). It appears to have worked - the 747-8F is still in production and the A380 is officially dead. Boeing isn't making much money on the 747-8F at the current production rate, but they're not loosing money either.
Yes, there were a small number of A380F ordered early, then cancelled when Airbus ran into trouble with the A380. But even
before the orders were cancelled, industry analysts were puzzling over the A380F - for the very reasons I posted earlier. It seems to be rather telling that, after Airbus got a handle on the A380, they never bothered to re-offer the A380F.
The 747 was designed from day one to make a good freighter. The A380 wasn't.