Apple CEO Tim Cook: 'I Do Think Price is a Factor' in Declining iPhone Upgrades

[BvizioN]

To me it is not the biggest factor. I just don't like too freaking large phones. That's why I use an iPhone SE. I was hoping for a new iPhone SE with face ID and other new features. But they want an iPad in my pocket. No way dude.

I get you dude, and I agree with you (even though I prefer a large device rather small since I use my phone nowadays as a mobile computer)
But I have to admit that small display smartphones do seem to be dead! At least for now. Maybe in the future, folding devices could resolve this.

 

[Virinprew]

yet here you are. Let me help you, you seem to be lost: https://samsungrumors.net.

With your logic, you shouldn't be here as well. Because Macrumors also covers Samsung product.
[doublepost=1548831203][/doublepost]

It's not just the price of the phones that is outrageous it is the accessories of everything Apple as well.

And the need to buy those accessories in the first place.
[doublepost=1548831288][/doublepost]

That's nice. Do you speak for everyone?

It goes both way though.

 

[hans1972]

And yet having a better revenue does not mean they are selling more units since they are selling more expensive units.
Hence, Apple cancel the disclose of sales per units numbers.

And yet, Apple has implicitly said that device sales are not their highest priority. They care about revenue, gross profit margin, EPS and such.

So when Cook talks about the impact of price, I interpret as in regards to revenue, not number of devices, based on the context of the question asked to him.
[doublepost=1548833969][/doublepost]

Ah, share price for a bunch of greedy bums over making a solid product that the masses want and need.

The question was related to why Tim Cook is still CEO. Customers are almost irrelevant in that context. Shareholders are relevant.

 

[vmistery]

Price certainly is a factor, the problem he has got now is if you slash and burn the prices (like they have done on XR contracts in the UK) then people will be less likely to pay full price in the future.

 

[Cosmosent]

Anybody catch this earlier ?

$51,982 / $800 = 65.0 M units

The $51,982 number seems almost "manufactured".

If Cook knew by the end of Oct 2018 that they had ANY chance of hitting 65M units, does it make ANY sense that they would NOT want to report that number ???

65M units is NOT a bad number, nor is an ASP of $800.

They have a History of shouting positive things from rooftops, while doing their best to try to suppress bad news.

I expected 45M units with an ASP in the $735-$785 range.

I am extremely surprised by the reported iPhone Revenue number.

Only thing I can think of is AAPL sold ALOT of XS Max units from Oct 1-25th than anybody thought, which would push the ASP much higher, & thus the Units Number way down.

i.) 51.982 / 60M units = $866

ii.) 51,982 / 55M units = $945

iii.) 51,982 / 50M units = $1,040


Why did Cook feel the need to announce on Nov 1st that AAPL would stop reporting iPhone Unit Sales ???

That's the Trillion Dollar Question !

Did earlier versions of "Timmy" affect them more than I had originally thought ? ... most believe they sold ALOT more iPhone X units than they actually did ... Timmy uses Basic Constraint-based Math to prove that wasn't the case.

 

[Bert Oberholz]

I think pricing is even worse in Europe. Today the iPhone XS is $999 in the U.S. and €1.149 in Europe which based in the currency exchange rate is about $1.300 (+30%!).

Okay, this might be due to the reduction "in ermerging countries"

My point is, however, that for every single item in the Apple Store down to a plastic cover for $20 the amount Euro is the exact number as the amount in U.S.

In other words: an item that costs $1.000 in the U.S. costs €1.000 in Europe which is an increase or $140 or 14%!

Let me add, like others did in this thread: I also bought an XS but I didn't like the haptic in terms of size, thickness and weight. I gave it to my wife (seriously) and am waiting now for the next SE or 4" model.

As a replacement for my SE, which was no longer sold (I know it is now in the U.S.) I bought a 7 and will stick to it as long as possible!

Bert

 

[dankedieter]

To me it is not the biggest factor. I just don't like too freaking large phones. That's why I use an iPhone SE. I was hoping for a new iPhone SE with face ID and other new features. But they want an iPad in my pocket. No way dude.

I’m with you on that. I think we’ve reached peak phablet.

 

[cocoua]

I can see price being factor against buying a flagship/marquis grade phone.

Headphone jack? I haven't had a headphone jack in nearly 2.5 years. Haven't missed it once.

I hace many speakers and high quality headhones wired and I miss the jack every day

 

[sunapple]

I bought my XR open-box for €630 (retail is €859), no complaints here.

 

[nihil0]

Make € prices 1:1 with US prices (without added tax of course) and people will buy like crazy. Not only iPhones but also Macs as well.

 

[AnonMac50]

Samsung isnt cheap

Not cheap, but cheaper. A Note 9 in Australia with 512 GB of storage (at launch) is about 700-800 AUD cheaper than an XS Max with 512 GB of storage. That means with the left over money I could still buy a new iPhone 7.

 

[Marshall73]

Of course price is a factor. That and the public looking at Apples margins on devices at least 40% which is taking the piss. When your iPhone costs more than 3 windows i3 laptops questions have to be asked.

I normally upgrade every year and pass the old handsets down to family members but I can see this being the last year I do that, not that I can’t afford it but that it’s no longer value for money.

 

[jeffreyg]

To me it is not the biggest factor. I just don't like too freaking large phones. That's why I use an iPhone SE. I was hoping for a new iPhone SE with face ID and other new features. But they want an iPad in my pocket. No way dude.

Yeah. Drop the prices on these hideous over-sized franken-phones to get rid of excess stock and get to work on something sleek, sexy and tiny. I'll pay top dollar for that.

 

[TGM85]

In 2016 I bought an iPhone 7 plus 128 GB at release for about €1.000. This was a top of the line model at the time. I fully expected to get 3-4 years of use out of this phone. I'm still happy with my purchase and still feel like I got quite good value for my money. I felt no need at all to upgrade in 2018.

If I would like to buy a comparable top of the line model right now, e.g. an iPhone XS Max 256 GB, I would have to spend about €1.450. For my American friends: that's $1,650 (for comparison's sake: US Apple store price for this phone is $1,249). I don't live in a developing country at all, but €1.450 is still a month's wages for many people over here.

I just can't convince myself that the difference in user experience between an iPhone 7 plus and an XS Max is worth that amount of money.

I've been a loyal Apple user since 2005 and I never really had much of a problem paying the Apple premium prices. But I feel like Apple has really jumped the pricing shark since 2017, and not just on iPhones. I really hope this interview means Tim Cook and Apple senior management are starting to see the light and we can expect some more reasonable pricing going forward. I don't expect them to sell a premium phone for €/$300, but current price levels are making Apple devices no longer good value for money.

 

[sofila]

Before talking about high prices, he should have warned the cheerleaders in here first

 

[DinkThifferent]

Well price is the reason i didn’t buy a new Mac this year for sure. My mid-2011 iMac is out of luck with Mojave and its speed is decreasing so i set my eyes on an “affordable” Mac Mini, expecting a slight price increase but then the cheapest model turned out to be 900 euros (1029 dollars) with only a 128GB ssd. Not really a great replacement for a mac with a conpletely filled 500GB harddrive. So i decided to upgrade my Ram and bought an external harddrive, so now my Mac feels much faster by moving all my pictures, movies and music to the external drive and the ever present beach ball is finally gone after tripling the RAM from 4 tot 12GB.

Same with my iPhone 8 Plus. I was really interested in the XS Max but 1500 euros for a phone is ridiculous. And I had for the second time an issue with my phone, so Apple replaced it again. So bascially my iPhone is now only 4 weeks old. Good to go for another 2 years! Unless it breaks for the third time of course....

 

[jeffreyg]

I’m with you on that. I think we’ve reached peak phablet.

If only. I think they'll get even bigger!

 

[sofila]

Cook says that in January, in some locations, the company has absorbed all or part of the currency movements compared to a year ago, getting closer to local price compared to a year ago.

In summary for those jumping to conclusions and did not read the article: He said price was a factor for out of US sales because of FX rates... In US he said price was not a factor since there was a wide spectrum of pricing.

We "out" of US have had a long history with Apple and currency movements. Plus local taxes. Plus Apple tax. Glad to see that Apple's CEO noticed that too.

 

[bgalakazam]

How about you offer a SE form factor or at least 8 size for less than $600? Peolle don’t want to spend $1000 on a phablet

 

[honglong1976]

The problem is Apple want to conquer China and their competition is very high. Xiaomi make such HQ phones for peanuts. The other problem is Apple have underestimated how many people can actually afford $1000 for a phone in China.

 

[babaroga73]

Dear Tim, greetings from eastern europe. (boy, this will be a longer rant)

I remember when I got my iPhone 4 as a present and switched from then mostly top of the line Nokia N95.
I guess that was my 1st true smartphone ... although i used all the functions that Symbian was capable of, and also had one WinCE phone, which was good for games, but rubbish as a phone.

It was like I had an electric orgasm for a first month of using it. I couldn't comprehend the ammount of work and the attention to detail that was put in software and hardware to make it "just work". I was hooked immendiately. In next two years , I think, I bought 1gen iPad (2nd hand) ,and a bit later iPhone 5 and iPad Mini (brand new, off contract), AppleTV1, ATV3, and most recently ATV4. They were a bit more expensive than in US (like 10-20%) , but what the hell.

The moment I upgraded my iPhone 5 to iOS7, strangely, it started showing signs of aging. And so was I , that thin fonts and blaring white spaces made me check my eyesight, and guess what, I was ready for reading glasses.

So it was time for upgrade .... I got 220e for my iPhone 5 (which was in the out-of-the-box shape), sold some watch for 200e, and all I needed was 150e more for iPhone 6 (which was then a year old product) ... During that transpactions and calculations, I started using knock off brand chinese Android phone, which had dual-sim ...Hmmm, i forgot to mention that I carried the second phone all the time prior to that, some Nokia/Razr or whatever I had lying around.

Suddenly , that dual-sim option looked interesting (it was 2014-15 approx.) ... Should i buy a single-sim 16gb 4.7in iPhone for 550-600e (plus carry the second phone) , or should i buy 32Gb dual sim 5.5in LG G3 , question was raised ????

Obviously I bought LG G3 , which at first acted like a great Android device, but with age started showing signs of ****** software design. But look, I changed battery twice in it (as i could do it myself), and it lasted me a good 4 years!

Last year, not as much as I HAD TO change my phone, but more that I felt the need to ditch the old device ... I looked again for iPhone as an option ... LG went off as a gift, because I could sell it for practically nothing.

Now, should I buy the second hand newer iPhone for 500e, should I buy 3yr old iPhone sold as new for that money, should I cave in and give 700-800e for and iPhone I really wanted?

Of course, the hell no!

And so i bought that Xiaomi Pocophone with (again) dual-sim (that 2sim tech is a bitch, isn't it?) with 128Gb and expandable, with top-notch processor (what ever that means) , 8-10h OST, and (some say) preeeety decent camera. And i bought it for 360e. When I pair it with my 25e bluetooth earphones, i feel like a (well, not million) a 1000$ man!

I reckon that Poco is at least 10% worse than brand new iPhone (20% if you include the hardware design , which is either way packed in protective case and glass shield) . Android got a bit better, too, in last few years. But that price though ....damn!

So, that "window of opportunity" , if you're looking for it, has already passed. There was once a moment when you could make a 300$ phone, and reign the whole world with it and with iOS. How sad am I that this never happened. Nowadays, no manufacturer can ADD KILLER FEATURE to it to make smartphone market young again.

From now on, 'til the day we get brain implant chip smartphone, there's just not much to add to it.

Which reminds me ..... WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON WITH APPLE TV 4 / 4K ?????

Do you not realize that it can be used for reading books (pdf, cbr, etc.) ?? Or News ??? (Newsblur, a couple of RSS readers) all while playing music in background .... Did you know I can play a game of Rummy or Risk or anything or browse and comment of reddit (with Readder) or twitter, all the time listening to File Explorer playing music in the background ???

Do you not realize that it needs dual-app mutitask and a better remote (for games) and it can be a home computer ???? I, sure as hell, use it as such everyday!!!! (especially with my degraded eyesight)

THAT'S YOUR NEXT KILLER FEATURE, THAT'S YOUR NEXT KILLER PRODUCT !!
(because you don't have competition for it (much as you didn't when iPhone and iPad first arrived) and people don't even know they need it still)

You already have it, yet you choose to scorn it, to neglect it entirely, to "treat it as a hobby" , to not even update AppStore on it with features that iOS devices have!

So long, Apple, and best wishes for you! (You look like you need it)

Sincerely yours,

Alex Hax

 

[Freedom2099]

The price of an iPhone has reached unreasonable levels! I have been a loyal apple customer since way before the advent of the iPhone... and last year, for the first time, to upgrade my iPhone 6S I opted for a non apple phone (a Oneplus 5T).
It's not that I can't afford it... it's simply not worth it! More than 1k for a phone is simply too much!
And this is coming from a guy who owns a 2018 i9 Macbook Pro 15, a Mac Mini, an Apple TV, iPad Air 2 and an Apple Watch (that I sadly don't use anymore)

 

[Bornee35]

With your logic, you shouldn't be here as well. Because Macrumors also covers samsung products.

That’s quite the conclusion you jumped to. By that notion car dealerships primarily offer free coffee. Majority coverage is Apple in nature.

 

[kingofwale]

say what you want about Steve Jobs being arrogant, but the guy was never as out of touch with reality as Cook is.

"not a factor in US".. LOL

 

[AnonMac50]

iPhone 8/8 Plus were supposed to be the high end models (replacing the 7/7 Plus, which were previously the highest and best you could buy). The X was a new entry into the product line with a new price point (and similar specs to the 8 series). Saying this is less of a gap than last year isn’t really comparing apples to apples.