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Foxconn Adds More Workers to Assembly Lines as iPhone 5s Supplies Continue to Improve
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And charge only slightly less than the flag ship phone. Can't forget that part.
But the fanbois will claim victory because of the number of 5s' sold. They cheer at the degradation of apple's marketshare for some reason. I don't get it, but it makes sense in their mind somehow. And if you question the bleeding marketshare, the fanbois simply say "start your own smartphone company". Bwahahaaha
In Texas, it would appear that supplies are good. I walked into the Apple store the other day and grabbed a Space Grey 5s. I could have gotten any color I wanted and any size I wanted.
Might as well start somewhere. But capitalism doesn't care about the people. Just cares about $$$$$$$$$$ and more $$$$$$$$$$$. Maybe one day.
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??? Apple doesn't care about market share. If they did, they wouldn't make nearly every case out of expensive aluminum. They'd offer much cheaper products and more choice if they cared about market share. In your mindset, market share is important. At the heart of Apple's ideology lies simplicity and perfection. I'm not not necessarily defending Apple, but if you actually look at the company you'd quickly realize that market share is not something cares about.
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It'll be interesting to see what they do next year with the 5C.
I don't think there's anyone that really looks at the 5C and 5S and goes "wow the 5C is amazing. Apple should just sell this phone instead of the 5S."
The majority of people would rather have a 5S from what I see on a daily basis. Especially with the 5C being so close in price...
The majority of people would rather have a 5S from what I see on a daily basis. Especially with the 5C being so close in price...
i don't see it as being clear at all that their prediction failed, nor that they expected better sales for the model from the decision of slowing production down.
Why are none of those things clear? Because Apple doesn't publish predictions or expectations. Analysts and analyst-wannabes--none of them officially speaking for Apple, mind you--do. They also publish false assumptions about Apple's predictions and/or expectations. And more often than not make asses of themselves.
Do you really not understand that production was initially higher to create a stockpile for a successful launch? Demand is skewed towards launch day so production is too. What makes this so hard to fathom?
i didnt have any trouble getting 150 5s's this week for our corporate switch back to att. that included 20 gold ones
We don't know that. Just like we don't know for sure that production has slowed or stopped anywhere, or if it has it's because of weak demand. Just because some Far East publication reports it (and then the usual suspects pick it up) doesn't make it true. The only facts are 1) we don't know how many 5Cs Apple initially produced and how many they're producing now, 2) we don't know how many 5Cs Apple has sold to date and 3) antidotal evidence is not an accurate measurement of sales.
The new MacPro is a start and with any luck it will show that production can be a success in the US. Lots of supporting industries necessary to do this are being revived by MacPro production and that is the key to moving this type of work back to the US.
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I think there's a number of MR members who cringe every time they see someone walk out of Walmart with an iPhone. They want to believe their product is a premium product and not something that is used by the unwashed masses. Their favorite word is "cheap" because aluminum is such a luxury metal. (Coke cans are aluminum -- does that make it luxury?") Losing market share is great for them because it confirms their belief that only the upper classes have iDevices.
The 5C has been reasonably successful in that it sells more than other previous models have sold when new ones come out and got rid of the old 5 design which had a bunch of manufacturing problems that caused a lot of rejects and QA problems. It is after all selling more than most other smart phones just not nearly as many as the 5S.
Apple didn't care about marketshare in the PC market, how did that work out for them in the mid-90s? Marketshare shrunk so low that developers jumped ship. Apple dominated the marketshare for the mp3, smart phone, and tablet spaces. They are settling on only the most expensive bracket. From having ALL of the market, apple could have guaranteed their dominance by going for the upper middle and high end. Instead, apple will go with the <10% marketshare, the competition will eventually get their ish together, and developers will jump ship again. Cheap smart phones and tablets are starting to get software support from their manufacturers, once most of the cheap devices get this treatment, then the developers will realize big $$$ from android, and apple will lag behind yet again.
marketshare ...shmarket share.
In the end only profit counts.
So, by selling less (small market share) but maximizing profits, who does better?
And, let's compare Apple to apples. Market share numbers on sold units vs. pumped into the pipeline units are hard to come by.
I for one couldn't care less about fanbois 5S, 5C (ugly color choices) etc. as long as a company gives me good products.
The 5S is a good product, which I will not buy, unless my 4S dies, as I feel it's time to launch a 128GB iphone.
You have no idea what you're talking about. Apple's market share in smart phones may be shrinking overall but that was inevitable. They're still selling more phones YOY. Apple doesn't care that they're losing market share because they know that there is a large market for cheap "smart" phones that they have no desire to be a part of. They're a premium brand smart phone maker. The real metric that means anything to Apple is YOY sales and the ratio of gaining new customers versus losing customers to competitors. As long as that remains in the positive, then there really is no bleeding market share that they need to be concerned about.
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I'm a dyed-in-the-wool iPhone fan but not because it's some sort of status symbol. I don't care who else has an iPhone. In fact, the more the better because I'm also shareholder.
I don't care about losing market share (which is really a misnomer). I would care if Apple decided to dominate the market at any cost, particularly when it comes to sacrificing high margins. The day Apple decides to compete with Samsung and other smart phone makers toe-to-toe in order to win market share is the day I cease being a shareholder.
That's about:
180,000,000 per year
15,000,000 per month
3,500,000 per week
21,000 per hour
350 per minute
6 per second
CRAZY
Crazier if you think that the 5s is probably only 60% of total iPhone sales, which infers that Apple is at about 250-300M phones per year
This will shift quickly though post 'boom' (next 3 months) and the rates will probably approach more like 40M a quarter than 60-70M a quarter. At that point, I do think the 5s 'guts' will drop into the 5c (save for the TouchID), and create a new boomlet in sales. This is hopefully the 'secret sauce' that will reduce the sales drops in June-Sept waiting for the iPhone 6 (and 6c).
The key point is that the 5c makes about the same amount of money for Apple, and gives carriers/retailers more retail pricing points with rebates. trade-ins etc. you can see right off the top that it's 16% percent less labor, less time in process, and less expensive materials.... Selling more at a higher gross wholesale profit later in the cycle is a good thing squared
I agree! Even if it is a slow start, I think the US could gradually build up the workforce required to these sort of things. The money is there, the people who need jobs are there, it's just a matter of building factories and educating people. It's not going to happen on its own.
I think developers still prefer iOS. There's not that many screen/resolutions which means they can actually test their apps on all devices. And don't forget that more and more apps are free and ad-supported which also comes into play here. Just look at the Mac platform. It has a relatively tiny marketshare, yet it is a popular niche product that people like. At the end of the day, Apple is one of the most profitable and successful tech. company of all times. I don't think you have to worry about Apple. They're not interested in capturing an entire market. Rather they like to create a market and be the best player in that new market. See tablets, smartphones, iWatch? iTV????
Ever read Moneyball?
The 5c was never the 'home run' for apple... It's a singles and doubles hitter that makes no errors and isn't getting paid free agent money.
And in reality, the value of the 5c is the fact you make the same amount of profit as a manufacturer, AND give your retailers more flexibility in pricing, allowing them to give 'one day sales,' and 'gift card' sales and not hurt their margins... Happy retailers make for good partners.
you make a product that costs 20% less to produce at the same gross profit per unit, and a lower wholesale price to retailers with the same MSRP.
So... if you're making the same per unit, price slotted the same as the unit it was replacing, it's not a 'poverty product'
It's clear you have no idea what Apple's Market is. It's clear you have a mental price point for _your_ phone, and Apple isn't meeting it.
The always slowed production of the 2nd (and 3rd) tier line... it's just that we never cared about it in the past, because it was not 'new.' There is a burst of sales at the new price point, then it goes steady state. The top of the line bursts for about 6 months, then drops as the next buying cycle approaches in the fall.
I truly believe that the 5c will get a 'turbo lift' in the Spring, moving the all but the TouchID guts into the 5c Chassis, boosting sales in the summer months as 'this is good enough for me phone, now that it's $100 cheaper.'
the goal is not to sell 'cheap phones' but phones that 'have value at a price point' and maintain the value through the summer months with a bump at the mid tier line.
Then in the fall, the '5c' is dropped another $100, and the '6c' and '6[s?]' are brought in.
Well, I can't speak for everyone, but I cringe when I see someone walk out of Walmart. With anything. I want to believe that humans are above the *bleep* that is Walmart.
My belief is not well-founded.
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Actually, the problem in the 90s is that they DID care about marketshare. They tried to compete on that issue and failed. When Jobs came back, they stopped worrying about it and began succeeding, again.
The massive marketshare of iDevices probably surprised the heck out of Jobs, he was never about selling to 90%.
