More than I thought. The Mac people aren't going to like this!
Yep you got that right! Pretty soon it will be the Apple Phone Company!
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iPhone Accounted for 39% of Apple Revenue in Q4 2008
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Yep you got that right! Pretty soon it will be the Apple Phone Company!
"Well, I think we have to be the best and I think we have to not leave a price umbrella underneath us, and we are working very hard to fulfill both of those goals."
I hope that Apple doesn't continue to follow through with this ideology. Otherwise, it will be difficult for us to see a version of the iPhone with much better features, such as a better camera (more mps and flash), possibly a second camera for video conferencing, a video recording app, a voice dialing app, more memory, removable battery/longer-lasting battery, a WiMAX antenna, a compass, and a memory slot for an SD or microSD card.
This would be a "Pro" version of the iPhone that would provide more functionality for a premium. I believe that there are quite a few people who would pay an additional amount for such features. However, this will not happen if Apple sticks to its "high quality/low price" model.
I hope that Apple doesn't continue to follow through with this ideology. Otherwise, it will be difficult for us to see a version of the iPhone with much better features, such as a better camera (more mps and flash), possibly a second camera for video conferencing, a video recording app, a voice dialing app, more memory, removable battery/longer-lasting battery, a WiMAX antenna, a compass, and a memory slot for an SD or microSD card.
This would be a "Pro" version of the iPhone that would provide more functionality for a premium. I believe that there are quite a few people who would pay an additional amount for such features. However, this will not happen if Apple sticks to its "high quality/low price" model.
Doesn't fit the facts. Apple are the #3 mobile phone seller, so lots of people do want the iPhone. It's making a lot of Apple's revenue, but that's not the whole story - it's got a lot of the market as a whole.
The iPhone is also not static - there are lots of software updates. The 2.0 update pretty much turned the EDGE iPhone in to a new phone with the additional software features.
Your argument isn't logical - if people want to change phones, why not upgrade their current iPhone to the newest model? If Apple is concentrating on the iPhone as much as you say they are, there should be a new model every year. This saturation argument is the same as we heard with the iPod, and that never came to be.
I doubt Apple is concentrating on the iPhone as much as the revenue statement would lead some to think. There are separate teams that work in each business, and all of them are doing well, because all businesses are growing. Apple isn't abandoning the Mac (you'd be crazy to think they were).
Thank you for the replies. I'm new to being an Apple customer (I used to hate Apple (I was younger and closed-minded), but now I own an iPod mini and an iPhone3G and I'm considering a MacBook Air). I used to always think that Apple was first to market after hearing hundreds of people tell me that Microsoft copied the concept of a GUI from Apple and then seeing the first-gen iPhones (and fyi: the first mp3 player that I ever saw was an iPod ... about 6 years ago). But thanks for the replies. I learn something new about Apple every day. Thanks. Now I just have to figure out how in the heck to "right click" on a Mac. I've been a PC user for decades, but lately I've been trying to use the Macs at our local library, and I have to say it's an awkward transition. But I'm being persistent and hoping I will see the benefit.
BRILLIANT IDEA !!!!!!!!
(if smart phones continue the current trend of becoming more and more like computers, then I think this concept is inevitable in the long run)
It also ties into the theory of Disruptive Technology presented in the book "The Innovators Dilemma." See here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disruptive_technology
If the iPhone (and I think macs in this case too) remain a high end luxury item, competitors will make cheaper items to fill in that lower price point. These items won't be as good as the Apple items, but they will be 'good enough.' Technology doesn't stand still though and these items will get better which means the iPhone also has to continue to improve at that rate (or lower in price) or eventually it will be overtaken by the less expensive devices gaining features in an evolutionary fashion.
No, it is a good thing that they are making the money, the bad thing could be how Apple moves forward, i.e. they continue to focus efforts too much on the iPhone and ignore the other product lines or, if they rely too heavily on the profits of the iPhone which is in a pretty fickle market as people love getting the latest greatest phone and dont necessarily remain loyal to a brand, then Apple could hurt itself. Not in anyway suggesting that they are heading down this way, just examples of what could potentially happen. The cutting of firewire ports in the new portables is a could example, Apple has how much cash available and they are skimping on a single port (a consumer view).
Although we probably wont see this for another 2 years or so, Apple needs to ensure the iPhone hardware & software is continually upgraded and kept as current as possible (unlike the MacMini). You can only do so much with software to cover the shortcomings of hardware and also the reverse. Cell Phones are a world of constant change, even if Apple provides a quality device, it doesnt mean the market will share the same view when the other models have a better camera or better integration into corporate networks etc etc. So long as Apple maintains the innovation and provides fresh products then they should be fine, only do very minor updates and people will be more tempted to move on. Also the more change that occurs the easier it is to justify the pricing vs other models even if say the Android phones get cheaper.
Excellent answer.
Example: the first Android-powered phone, priced at $179, is protected by Apple's $199 umbrella. If Apple can drive the price of the iPhone down closer to $100, it becomes that much more difficult for competitors to introduce competitive products.
$179 > $199 is not much of an umbrella though IMO.
However, we will most likely see touchscreen Android phones at $99 before long.
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5F136 Safari/525.20)
The qtr ending in Sept is Apple's fiscal year end.
The qtr ending in Sept is Apple's fiscal year end.
Yeah. The best computers in the market. They simply have to do better.
It's really an astonishing result. To become the third biggest mobile phone company in revenue after eighteen months is unheard of. To even have the audacity to take on a market that had seemingly reached saturation point and compete with companies entrenched in that market, that supposedly knew better, is admirable for it's courageousness alone.
Apple bets their future in moves like this. And they win.
IMO, they're not close to the best computers on the market. There's little consumer choice in models, and not close to enough BTO options. The hardware prices are also 50% higher than PC's with identical hardware. And there isn't enough power available in their Macbook "Pro" line, and what is available is at insane prices. And all that is ignoring the latest releases, with no MB firewire and no MBP Matte screens, as well as almost identical hardware as the previous lineup, and a higher-priced Macbook with a less powerful processor.
Macs may be great products for rich people, but in this economy they won't do well, as people cut back on non-necessary spending in their budgets.
$25 billion on cash and save $20 on the firewire
run and hide ...
--disgruntled apple fanboy
FW probably costs much less than $20.
Agree about the astonishing part.
Apple done good!
Actually they are. Did you see the Mac sales increase. Unbelievable.
Apple is doing it right. Methodical updates that are good, and much faster than they used to do them years ago with the PPC platform.
Agree.
At these price levels, I don't believe that it needs to be that much to make a difference.
Apple's Fiscal Year is from October 1st to September 30th.
Many US companies and the government follow this system.
FWIW, in Japan, the typical FY is from April 1st to March 31st.
I don't think much of a price umbrella is required on consumer products. If Apple offered the iPhone for $100, competitors would have to come at least a few dollars under that price if they hope to steal away market share. The lower the umbrella, the more discouraging it becomes for competitors to try. It's good to know that Apple recognizes that they must continue to put pricing pressure on their competitors if they want to continue to grow market share for the iPhone.