Apple CEO Tim Cook: iPhone X Has Been the Top Selling iPhone Every Week Since it Shipped

[macs4nw]

I’m going to trust that Tim Cook on an earnings call isn’t going to lie.....

I wasn't stating, or even insinuating that either, but merely stating a fact.

.....On the other hand your comment that the price is holding many back is based on what exactly? A feeling? Anecdotal evidence? Certainly not anything Cook said on the earnings call. ....

Your own original statement quoting the WSJ and Nikkei that "Apple was slashing orders 50%" could, amongst other things such as planned, reverse-staggered production (where initial production is high to meet demand, followed by a tapering off to lower volumes), also be an indicator of disappointing sales, with adjustments to future production. True, in the absence of concrete date, this can only be speculated upon by outsiders, I'll give you that.

.....I get that for whatever reason some people don’t want the X to be successful but it is so they need to stop pretending it isn’t.

You're barking up the wrong tree. I'm neither an eternal apologist for Apple, nor a relentless attack dog criticizing Apple at every opportunity to put them in a negative light. I endeavor to keep things balanced.

I may have concerns about Apple's long-term prospects of staying at the top based on their shifting business model from innovators being in charge, to comptrollers running the show, but nothing could be further from the truth than thinking I would want Apple to fail.

 

[johngordon]

In many people's eyes, the iPhone is a failure. It just depends on your point of view or the definition of failure. It's quite obvious iPhone sales didn't meet Wall Street's expectations and now Apple's value has gone to crap.

This would not meet any reasonable person’s definition of failure. It seems where Apple is concerned, anything less than breaking previous records, which are nothing short of astonishing is considered by some as some almight catastrophe and before you know it, Apple are doomed once more.

And how are we defining “gone to crap” here?

 

[groove-agent]

I read Tim's comments and it just seems like he's completely icing the truth with colourful adjectives etc. I don't think it's as good as they would like us believe.

 

[carrrrrlos]

“iPhone X Has Been the Top Selling iPhone X Every Week Since it Shipped”

 

[manhattanboy]

I may have concerns about Apple's long-term prospects of staying at the top based on their shifting business model from innovators being in charge, to comptrollers running the show, but nothing could be further from the truth than thinking I would want Apple to fail.

This is a great comment. I too feel that at times the implementation of how Apple is doing things over the past several years has been sliding in the more monetarily focused direction instead of user experience. I feel the same about what Google is doing as well, and obviously they are not suffering for it as their stock is booming. What it means is that what is best for users is obviously not what is best for these companies, and anyone who believes that these companies main driver is innovation to improve the user experience is delusional.

 

[WannaGoMac]

This is a great comment. I too feel that at times the implementation of how Apple is doing things over the past several years has been sliding in the more monetarily focused direction instead of user experience. I feel the same about what Google is doing as well, and obviously they are not suffering for it as their stock is booming. What it means is that what is best for users is obviously not what is best for these companies, and anyone who believes that these companies main driver is innovation to improve the user experience is delusional.

What is the alternative? Seriously. Think you get any where near the support and experience from a Samsung? That's what kept me with Apple ultimately, Samsung could care less after the device is 1 year old or so. With apple so far i have gotten 3-5 years of supported use out of my devices.

 

[ph001bi]

But WSJ and Nikkei said Apple was slashing orders 50%.

That's what they say every year.

 

[manhattanboy]

What is the alternative? Seriously. Think you get any where near the support and experience from a Samsung? That's what kept me with Apple ultimately, Samsung could care less after the device is 1 year old or so. With apple so far i have gotten 3-5 years of supported use out of my devices.

Listen to what you just said: your expectations of Apple are lower than they used to be, but ultimately everyone else is worse so you are stuck with declining expectations. What will be interesting to see is if Apple starts to do what the airlines have done with declining customer expectations: treat everyone but their most lucrative customers like garbage until it reaches a revolt point and then give back a little of what was taken away.

 

[Askolan]

It certainly is NOT factored it. IMHO.

It ONLY gets factored in if you do calculations "PER WEEK" - which may be a more useful objective measure. This is not something that is done much that I have ever seen. It's a bit of a cheat, but I'm glad it makes my beloved AAPL stock look better, and it seems perfectly reasonable.

Why do you think all the negative ninnies are now making articles that "Apple Missed" this and that. Ha ha. You go and ask them if they did or did not "factor in" the one week difference. The answer is that they are "not" factoring in the difference in weeks.

We will have to explain this little week "cheat" thing to each and every person for the next several months I'm sure, otherwise the fake history of this situation is that "Apple Missed Fiscal Q1 2018" - that's all those guys will have to cling to. haha.

The guys who know what is what are already voting with their buy orders.

Sorry man, but it is most definitely factored in just as it has been for decades for every other traded company. Here, they sold more phones not just in the 13 week quarter but all of 2017 than they did in 2018, and this is the actual transcript:
https://www.fool.com/earnings/call-...appl-q1-2018-earnings-conference-call-tr.aspx

Unless all of 2017, not just the quarter, had an extra week that I don't know about..

The good news is that the ASP (average selling price) per phone went up by a lot, this is because the X starts at $1,000. This makes wall street (and me, as a very small time investor) very happy because its all about how much money is made at the end of the day, whether its through increased volume or increased profit per unit sold.

With that said, the stock will do well even if they missed their own gross margin expectations. There is a lot of promise in their 'others' category. AirPods are an example of a great new product with a lot of revenue earning potential and fantastic profit margins. He needs to bring more of this to market.

It certainly is NOT factored it. IMHO.

It ONLY gets factored in if you do calculations "PER WEEK" - which may be a more useful objective measure. This is not something that is done much that I have ever seen. It's a bit of a cheat, but I'm glad it makes my beloved AAPL stock look better, and it seems perfectly reasonable.

Why do you think all the negative ninnies are now making articles that "Apple Missed" this and that. Ha ha. You go and ask them if they did or did not "factor in" the one week difference. The answer is that they are "not" factoring in the difference in weeks.

We will have to explain this little week "cheat" thing to each and every person for the next several months I'm sure, otherwise the fake history of this situation is that "Apple Missed Fiscal Q1 2018" - that's all those guys will have to cling to. haha.

The guys who know what is what are already voting with their buy orders.

It is factored in. The stock plummeted today. Luckily I bought in at a lower price. There are a lot of improvements to be made. They need to advertise their AirPods more, its their best new product. I'm still surprised people don't know that they charge in the case. The iPhone X is good, but not $1,000 good. When you have 12 different phones on sale, of course the flagship model will be the top selling. We'll see what happens.

 

[DeepIn2U]

As usual, Apple makes the pundits eat dirt. Watch the stock price continue to rise past $200 per share in the next six months. Now, be off to play with your Androids and Sammy copy phones!

Although I personally hate Android as an OS, you do realize that Samsung has a Galaxy S9 announcement pending this month right? There is major potential that it's design, features, and price point maybe comparable to the iPhone X. There is potential it may hamper X sales in the coming months ... not for Apple users that are entrenched into the iOS ecosystem but for users that jump around from phone to phone, manufacturer to manufacturer. Today is Apple all hail today ... we don't know what tomorrow brings. Plus there are a many number of people - lawsuits as well as DOJ investigating potential of Apple throttling iOS in older phones to invoke more sales. If it's proven as true ... it's going to be a bad image for Apple.

 

[WannaGoMac]

Listen to what you just said: your expectations of Apple are lower than they used to be, but ultimately everyone else is worse so you are stuck with declining expectations. What will be interesting to see is if Apple starts to do what the airlines have done with declining customer expectations: treat everyone but their most lucrative customers like garbage until it reaches a revolt point and then give back a little of what was taken away.

Yep, not denying it Apple was "better" a few years ago. Until it's about same as the Android experience I will stay...
[doublepost=1517598385][/doublepost]

Although I personally hate Android as an OS, you do realize that Samsung has a Galaxy S9 announcement pending this month right? There is major potential that it's design, features, and price point maybe comparable to the iPhone X. There is potential it may hamper X sales in the coming months ... not for Apple users that are entrenched into the iOS ecosystem but for users that jump around from phone to phone, manufacturer to manufacturer. Today is Apple all hail today ... we don't know what tomorrow brings. Plus there are a many number of people - lawsuits as well as DOJ investigating potential of Apple throttling iOS in older phones to invoke more sales. If it's proven as true ... it's going to be a bad image for Apple.

S9 leaked, it's mostly the same as the S8 just tweaked a bit and of course usual CPU upgrades etc.

 

[BuddyTronic]

Sorry man, but it is most definitely factored in just as it has been for decades for every other traded company. Here, they sold more phones not just in the 13 week quarter but all of 2017 than they did in 2018, and this is the actual transcript:
https://www.fool.com/earnings/call-...appl-q1-2018-earnings-conference-call-tr.aspx

Unless all of 2017, not just the quarter, had an extra week that I don't know about..

The good news is that the ASP (average selling price) per phone went up by a lot, this is because the X starts at $1,000. This makes wall street (and me, as a very small time investor) very happy because its all about how much money is made at the end of the day, whether its through increased volume or increased profit per unit sold.

With that said, the stock will do well even if they missed their own gross margin expectations. There is a lot of promise in their 'others' category. AirPods are an example of a great new product with a lot of revenue earning potential and fantastic profit margins. He needs to bring more of this to market.


It is factored in. The stock plummeted today. Luckily I bought in at a lower price. There are a lot of improvements to be made. They need to advertise their AirPods more, its their best new product. I'm still surprised people don't know that they charge in the case. The iPhone X is good, but not $1,000 good. When you have 12 different phones on sale, of course the flagship model will be the top selling. We'll see what happens.

Not following the logic - perhaps I am mistaken?

I of course do realize Apple knows about the extra week. What I was saying was that negative articles will conveniently ignore this extra week and not bother to do the "weekly" calculations.

You gave a link to the transcript, and I am saying here that yes, I am aware that Apple knows.


So what were you trying to say? If you don't mind, I'd like to clarify.


Moving onwards, I am surprised that AAPL is down today, (Friday Feb 2). The whole market is down, yes, but wow, after being up 6 bucks last night after hours, and then to see all that lost and then going the opposite direction, it makes me wonder what is going on.

Is the big money so stupid that they don't even know if they are coming or going?


Anyway - hopeful that you will take time to explain about that weekly stuff and I hope I am more clear this time around in stating that I know apple knows the weekly stuff, but my point was that the negative slanted articles won't be using this weekly viewpoint, since the weekly view does show that Apple did really good.

 

[jdillings]

60% of the time, it's the top selling iPhone every week

 

[Askolan]

Moving onwards, I am surprised that AAPL is down today, (Friday Feb 2). The whole market is down, yes, but wow, after being up 6 bucks last night after hours, and then to see all that lost and then going the opposite direction, it makes me wonder what is going on.

Is the big money so stupid that they don't even know if they are coming or going?

Unfortunately, after hours are never reliable predictors :/ 9:30 - 4:00 am are the best times to get a true gauge of how wall st took the news. Wall st only cares about growth potential, they don't value a company for its products only its profits. Jobs never gave a damn about wall street, never even gave them a dividend, and thats how it should have remained IMHO.

 

[44267547]

They need to advertise their AirPods more.

Wrong. You're out of touch or not paying enough attention to the media. Apple has had plenty of different marketing tactics with the Airpods with a recent Christmas commercial that was heavily played, they are marketed alongside the Apple Watch, and are advertised through carriers and in store retailers. Clearly their marketing is working, They can't even keep them in stock in stores near me.

The iPhone X is good, but not $1,000 good. When you have 12 different phones on sale, of course the flagship model will be the top selling. We'll see what happens.

I think you're misconstruing what flagship means. Flagship means the "Best or most important" of something in production. Apple doesn't have a "flagship" iPhone. Just because the iPhone X is the most expensive, doesn't make it a flagship, it just makes it there top-tier iPhone based on the price point and its their latest device available. The consumer devices ultimately what's a "Flagship."

 

[iisdan]

But WSJ and Nikkei said Apple was slashing orders 50%.

Yes, because they won't be selling it at a lower price point when gen 2 comes out, they don't want a massive overflow of product. The fake news outlets have spun it so it looks like it was a failure

 

[Askolan]

Flagship means the "Best or most important" of something in production. Apple doesn't have a "flagship" iPhone.

You're completely out of touch with reality.

ust because the iPhone X is the most expensive, doesn't make it a flagship, it just makes it there top-tier iPhone based on the price point and its their latest device available.

Again, come back down to earth. The X is where the advertising dollars are going. It's also undeniably what Apple, the fans, haters and the analysts are all looking at.

 

[raghu8912]

But WSJ and Nikkei said Apple was slashing orders 50%.

Slashing orders doesn't mean anything, may be Apple as projecting to sell 30 million iPhone X units but they sold 25 million instead, that doesn't mean they didn't sell well.
Feel bad for marketing guys but projecting sales for new phone like iPhone X is as good as asking crystal ball on how many they expect to sell.
[doublepost=1517604012][/doublepost]

Mmm what is a CEO going to say its a bust?

CEO backed up those claims by numbers, i agree CEO will rarely say it is bust.
did you see the increase in ASP of iPhone by 101$, almost all of this is from iPhone X, that tells how many people are buying iPhone X.
[doublepost=1517604136][/doublepost]

Never doubted that the X was the top selling iPhone for Apple. I still don’t believe it’s worth the buy, but never had a doubt about its appeal to many others.

There are those who chose not to go with the X AND actually aren’t looking for Apple to fail.

Why it has to be so black and white around here is beyond me.

I still don’t believe it’s worth the buy
this is purely personal preference, there is no single product out there that every one likes at that price point. You have every right to vote with your wallet & express your opinion.
[doublepost=1517604249][/doublepost]

When your line-up consists of offering 8 different devices, it’s not hard for your most recent device to be the top selling one. Tim said it himself, the truth is in the long game, not a single 90 day period... let’s wait until we’re 365 days in and see where iPhone sales are then before declaring it a success or failure.

iPhone 8 & 8+ are also most recent devices.
[doublepost=1517604479][/doublepost]

They don't break down sales to individual models, "but trust us... X topped the charts EVERY week (gleaming ping from Tim's tooth)!". Yeah frickin' right.

If only non-Apple companies could get away w/ such blatant secrecy, partial lies & spin. This company's arrogance & contempt for its users is sickening, to me.

here is the comment from Samsung about Galaxy S8, S8+

According to a Samsung official confirmed to The Investor, the company has so far sold more than 5 million units of the Galaxy S8/S8 Plus since the official release.

“Although we cannot provide detailed figures, the sales are going smoothly around the globe. The combined sales already are beyond 5 million units,”

If only non-Apple companies could get away w/ such blatant secrecy, partial lies & spin.
What matters in numbers, how much money Apple made, what is the profit margin, what is the profit, i am sure there is no lies in this data.
[doublepost=1517604567][/doublepost]

It was always a clever way for Apple to combat declining iPhone sales. Just increase the price year on year.

Eventually your'll end up with a trillion dollar iPhone sold to one person to keep the trillion dollar company going.

Apple is here to make the share holders happy, they are not charity. as long as people buy them they will make them.
[doublepost=1517604784][/doublepost]

I don't understand why people continue to hate on Apple, at least when it comes to their earnings or whether or not the X is deemed a success. Why does it matter to you? Don't you have better things to focus on in life? The greatest American company of our time continues to put out good products and keep their customers and shareholders happy. Why does this anger you? The bitterness on here is insane to me.

i have a theory
they probably missed buying Apple stock years ago because they hated Apple & they never thought Apple would be most valuable company, so they hate Apple results out of jealousy, they feel bad that they are missing the party.

 

[manhattanboy]

Yep, not denying it Apple was "better" a few years ago. Until it's about same as the Android experience I will stay...

I use a Pixel alongside my iPhone as well and the experience is about the same. Some things are easier on the Pixel like one-touch hotspot, Google’s voice recognition or Bluetooth file sharing. Two things ultimately keep me glued into the Apple system: iChat and FaceTime. Without those there really is no substantial difference as the same 3rd party apps are on both platforms. Yes Apple still has better design, but it’s software lead is largely disappearing and they are beginning to rely more on a hardware lead instead, things like faster processors and custom 3D-imaging circuits.

 

[dampfnudel]

Of course, if the actual numbers showed the iPhone X being the most popular, the pundits and this forum would explode with "Apple were idiots to release the iPhone 8, too. They should have just launched the X as their only phone and sold it starting at $899."

Of course, Apple probably could not have manufactured anywhere near 75 million iPhone X's in the quarter, but hey...

Well, any pricing changes Apple makes this September, in particular lowering their prices, will tell the tale, won’t it? If the prices remain as the new normal, than all’s well in Apple land and who cares about detailed numbers.

 

[CWallace]

The problem with this summation is that each year the pricing of the previous models fall ... both in full retail pricing, and in contracts.

And the price of the 7 fell the moment the 8 was released, too. And by the same amount as the 6s fell when the 7 was announced and the 6 when the 6s was announced ($100). So if there was no X at a significant price premium over the 8, we should have seen ASPs grow by only $5-10 like they did in previous Q1s. But there is an X at a significant price premium over the 8 and that is why ASPs grew by $101.

Further some of these models get more of a discount (as I mentioned T-Mobile USA is offering buy 1 iPhone X on 2yr contract, get the second at 50% off), so more units could be "sold" or "shipped" yet the ASP would be affected (negatively) so it would skew this.

But T-Mobile is not getting that second iPhone X at half the price from Apple. They are paying the same price for both and T-Mobile is recovering the loss they are taking by offering the second one at half-price at retail through the fees charged over the two years of the contract.

Either way ... Q1 2017's ASP for all the models sold then is slightly lower than the ASP for Q1 2018 due to the higher pricing of the iPhone 8 and the iPhone X ... these also skew a typical relative year for year presumption does it not? Am I missing something here?

The iPhone 8 is $50 more at retail at launch then the iPhone 7 was at launch and the iPhone 8 Plus is $30 more at retail than the iPhone 7 Plus was at launch. That would skew the ASPs a bit higher for Q1 2018 than they were for Q1 2017, but not by $101 because even if everyone bought the same number of iPhone 8s and 8 Plus' as they did 7/7Plus, that would be $80 ($50+30).

Now, in theory we could see a $101 rise in ASP if everybody only bought the iPhone 8 Plus as that is $100 more than the iPhone 8. And when the iPhone 6 Plus launched, it did see strong sales and that helped raise iPhone ASPs for that model year. However, with the Plus model having been available for sale for three generations now, one can reasonably conclude that market demand for this size has been filled and that people buying it are upgrading from earlier Plus models. And with the iPhone X being actually larger in usable screen space than the iPhone 8 Plus, if anything, demand for "large screen phones" should have moved from the iPhone 8 Plus to the iPhone X.

But, going back to the original post, this does not mean that the X has outsold the 8 and the 8 Plus, or even the individually the 8 or the 8 Plus. It may have, but that is not what Tim Cook said.

Okay, but that's obvious due to time on market (as you noted). The important part of Cook's statement is that the iPhone X is selling well enough that it raised Apple's ASP for Q1 2018 by a factor of 10 to 20 compared to previous Q1s.

 

[dampfnudel]

Slashing orders doesn't mean anything, may be Apple as projecting to sell 30 million iPhone X units but they sold 25 million instead, that doesn't mean they didn't sell well.
Feel bad for marketing guys but projecting sales for new phone like iPhone X is as good as asking crystal ball on how many they expect to sell.
[doublepost=1517604012][/doublepost]
CEO backed up those claims by numbers, i agree CEO will rarely say it is bust.
did you see the increase in ASP of iPhone by 101$, almost all of this is from iPhone X, that tells how many people are buying iPhone X.
[doublepost=1517604136][/doublepost]

I still don’t believe it’s worth the buy
this is purely personal preference, there is no single product out there that every one likes at that price point. You have every right to vote with your wallet & express your opinion.
[doublepost=1517604249][/doublepost]
iPhone 8 & 8+ are also most recent devices.
[doublepost=1517604479][/doublepost]

here is the comment from Samsung about Galaxy S8, S8+

According to a Samsung official confirmed to The Investor, the company has so far sold more than 5 million units of the Galaxy S8/S8 Plus since the official release.

“Although we cannot provide detailed figures, the sales are going smoothly around the globe. The combined sales already are beyond 5 million units,”

If only non-Apple companies could get away w/ such blatant secrecy, partial lies & spin.
What matters in numbers, how much money Apple made, what is the profit margin, what is the profit, i am sure there is no lies in this data.
[doublepost=1517604567][/doublepost]
Apple is here to make the share holders happy, they are not charity. as long as people buy them they will make them.
[doublepost=1517604784][/doublepost]
i have a theory
they probably missed buying Apple stock years ago because they hated Apple & they never thought Apple would be most valuable company, so they hate Apple results out of jealousy, they feel bad that they are missing the party.

Jealousy is a big motivator for hate and criticism, no doubt. However, all criticism should be evaluated closely before dismissing it as a product of jealousy and envy. Valid criticism and the resulting corrections by companies can lead to a better experience for all customers, including those who own stock.

 

[Juicy Box]

Okay, but that's obvious due to time on market (as you noted). The important part of Cook's statement is that the iPhone X is selling well enough that it raised Apple's ASP for Q1 2018

No disagreement here, I think the amount that the ASP went up is pretty impressive.

I was just pointing out, now many posts ago, that people were misinterpreting Cooks post and saying that Apple sold more iPhone X models than the 8s, which might be true (imo, I don't think it has yet), but that is not what Cook said.

 

[CWallace]

I was just pointing out, now many posts ago, that people were misinterpreting Cooks post and saying that Apple sold more iPhone X models than the 8s, which might be true (imo, I don't think it has yet), but that is not what Cook said.

 

[OlliFlamme]

Apple is "thrilled" with the reception to the iPhone X, and that with its launch, the company was setting up the next decade of development. "That's how we look at it, and that's the reason it's chock full of incredible innovations.

I would only be shocked if iPhone would become the first SIM card-less phone. Bake in that little chip! You can do it, Tim!
[doublepost=1517610020][/doublepost]

But the obvious answer is that it’s all a conspiracy theory and they’re lying about the X being the most popular iPhone. Along with cooking their books to convince people of this.

Sometimes the truth is the truth. It might not be a truth you want to be true, or accept, but it’s the truth. Wilful denial doesn’t change that, it just makes the person look like a stubborn hater.

It appears that buying an iPhone X is much more a matter of buying a statement. It’s a still - just - a phone, but we shouldn’t think of it in that way. Hence the controversy around the product. It’s like Trump’s case: in the end, the subject of the debate fades away... That’s the Apple marketing magic:
All the superlatives, the keynotes, the casual clothing, ... the whole Apple marketing concept is more revolutionary than the free coke to get people hooked. Cars are even presented the same way, d’oh!

My point being: where we stand in the debate seems to be more important than getting to a consensus around the subject of it...

What is next level in this age is that the expressions used in marketing are meant to sell what’s already been sold... We need to be convinced that having bought the X makes sense... that’s seemingly Tim’s trick to be able to sell in the future. I am not sure Tim is pulling the right string, but who does??

Tim... software and convenience of it is the core, dude... still is in your niche...

2 reasons for the questionable situation:

1: half serious: I have an X, and I was neutral to it when I bought it, and like others, I am somehow regretting to step away from my previous flagship: the 7 plus. People! It has more downgrades in simple UI experience than it has upgrades. It’s plain BS, that amazing reception of customers thrilling Mr. Cook.

2: more serious: how can all the blah blah be matched together with a production slowdown as recently reported in here - due to decreased sales expectations?
And how does it even match with the rumours about a discontinuation of the current X?? All these contradictions...??