This..... "the only difference is the consumer holds Apple to a higher standard" and they aren't meeting the expectation. Good thoughts man. I agree with you here.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple Expects First Ever Decline of iPhone Sales Next Quarter
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I really don't get this. I'm on Verizon and my monthly bill actually went down and I don't pay any upfront cost for the device. There is a increase if I move to their newer XL plans but I could stay on my older device payment plan and still upgrade. I did the math over a year ago and it works in my favor.
On top of that Verizon will allow us to swap our iPhone 6S for a iPhone 7 after one year of payments. granted I would make a little more money if I sold it myself but the point being I don't have to go through the hassle of selling it myself.
The prices are only for the phone and line charge. Things like data buckets are not included below.
So under Verizon's old 2 year contract model.
$300 upfront (64gb model) plus $40x24 = $1260
My current device payment plan.
$31.25x24 plus $15x24 = $1110
Granted with the newer XL plan you will be paying $20 instead of $15 for the line charge.
5) Declining global economies are causing worldwide drops in sales across the board. In the time you wrote this post you could have done enough research to see this has nothing to do with customer satisfaction. Otherwise, you would have seen tremendous growth in any of the competitors. People just aren't buying expensive things right now.
My buddy at Apple said that the iPhone 6 was not a product of Steve Jobs. It has been over 4 years... the Apple watch was in early stages of development, but other than that it seems that few of the releases from the past couple years were products other than from the new team.
I hope Apple really knocks it out of the park with iPhone 7. The 6/6s just didn't do it for me, and I've stayed with iPhone 5…
The most comical idea in this thread is sales declining due to removal of subsidies.
Are you serious? I bet the same people who complained about contracts years ago are the same ones saying "removal of subsidies will be the doom of the iPhone!!".
You just can't make this **** up lol
Are you serious? I bet the same people who complained about contracts years ago are the same ones saying "removal of subsidies will be the doom of the iPhone!!".
You just can't make this **** up lol
Agreed. The past few years, the glitches and bugs are a part of daily life using an iOS or OS X device. The part that blows my mind is that the glitches aren't just weird minor things, but daily use instances like when rotate didn't work correctly after using the multitasking switcher for several point releases of iOS 8, I believe.
Now, sometimes I unlock my phone to an empty screen with just my background picture displayed where it hangs for about a minute and then the screen goes black and I have to press the power button and try again. Or the fact that my keyboard covers the upper half my screen half the time in Safari. Lots of every day use bugs that I encounter constantly.
Go easy on yourself.
I agree. The removal of subsidies is probably one of the things that helped the 6S/6S+ outsell the 6/6+ up until this point. People are really naive if they think the majority of Americans care more about the total price rather than "now I only have to pay "$0 upfront" to get the shiny new iPhone rather than "$199". Most only care about the upfront price, buy now/pay later is the story of the American consumer.
Has not one person actually read or listened to the earnings call?
Year over year iPhone sales have increased in the quarter they just reported! Despite last year being a record quarter.
Despite a significantly worsening economy profit margins were higher! In other words a minor upgrade 6-6s still managed to set a new record for this quarter. Apple has guided the possibility that next quarter may show a decline year over year as the March quarter last year benefited from trouble with low channel inventories leading to pent up demand artificially inflating numbers Hence as this next quarter there is no pent up demand and a significantly worse economy; next quarter sales may decline. In addition, the company has never been more profitable and has sold more products than under Tim Cook!
Apple till this day has the only touch ID that is acceptable and was first to market with 3d touch. What has any other company done of any significance in innovation? The Apple designed iPhone Arm processor chips have been exponentially increasing in speed and are now almost as fast as intel processors that are used in PC's. The speed difference in the processor and the quality of video and photos are shocking when you compare to previous iPhones.
The apple TV and i Watch last quarter set record numbers. There are now over 1 billion currently active iOS devices a new record which drove record number of app purchases
In summary it is amazing to me the shallow lens so many on this forum use to analyze the success of Apple.
Also those with knowledge know the real headwind leading Apple to guide to the possibility of decline in sales is the strength of the dollar to other currencies resulting in higher prices for the iPhone in countries like China which are already seeing a down turn in their economies. Don't fret though; this is a temporary situation and strong growth will return
Year over year iPhone sales have increased in the quarter they just reported! Despite last year being a record quarter.
Despite a significantly worsening economy profit margins were higher! In other words a minor upgrade 6-6s still managed to set a new record for this quarter. Apple has guided the possibility that next quarter may show a decline year over year as the March quarter last year benefited from trouble with low channel inventories leading to pent up demand artificially inflating numbers Hence as this next quarter there is no pent up demand and a significantly worse economy; next quarter sales may decline. In addition, the company has never been more profitable and has sold more products than under Tim Cook!
Apple till this day has the only touch ID that is acceptable and was first to market with 3d touch. What has any other company done of any significance in innovation? The Apple designed iPhone Arm processor chips have been exponentially increasing in speed and are now almost as fast as intel processors that are used in PC's. The speed difference in the processor and the quality of video and photos are shocking when you compare to previous iPhones.
The apple TV and i Watch last quarter set record numbers. There are now over 1 billion currently active iOS devices a new record which drove record number of app purchases
In summary it is amazing to me the shallow lens so many on this forum use to analyze the success of Apple.
Also those with knowledge know the real headwind leading Apple to guide to the possibility of decline in sales is the strength of the dollar to other currencies resulting in higher prices for the iPhone in countries like China which are already seeing a down turn in their economies. Don't fret though; this is a temporary situation and strong growth will return
It's a perception change. Here's how carriers' moves away from subsidization hurts all cell phone sales, regardless of whether or not your total bill goes up:
Your phone contract is up and your phone company tells you they can move you to a new plan which will save you X dollars per month. They don't emphasize or even inform that you have lost the opportunity to buy a new subsidized phone every two years. Then, when you decide you want a new phone and start pricing them, you realize your bill will go up to cover the cost of the new device; the total upgrade cost is now completely clear/transparent. The phone you thought you were paying $200 for each time you upgraded actually costs $650 which will now be added back into your monthly bill over the life of your contract. All of a sudden, you're thinking: do I really need a new phone? Am I willing to pay $30/month each for 2 years for new phones for 5 family members? Maybe we should just keep using our old ones or look at less-expensive alternatives. I suspect this is what is happening. I know my parents wanted new phones. Before this, they had changed plans and gotten a significant reduction in their monthly bill. When I explained to them that their bill will now go back up and they realized how much a new iPhone actually costs, they decided to keep using their "perfectly good" 2.5 year old phones. They do well enough financially to painlessly buy new $1K phones outright every year if they desired to do so but they won't; they don't see the need or the value.
I know I will think twice about upgrading my kids phones at this point on my group plan unless they are willing to cover the $30 difference added to our monthly bill.
Your phone contract is up and your phone company tells you they can move you to a new plan which will save you X dollars per month. They don't emphasize or even inform that you have lost the opportunity to buy a new subsidized phone every two years. Then, when you decide you want a new phone and start pricing them, you realize your bill will go up to cover the cost of the new device; the total upgrade cost is now completely clear/transparent. The phone you thought you were paying $200 for each time you upgraded actually costs $650 which will now be added back into your monthly bill over the life of your contract. All of a sudden, you're thinking: do I really need a new phone? Am I willing to pay $30/month each for 2 years for new phones for 5 family members? Maybe we should just keep using our old ones or look at less-expensive alternatives. I suspect this is what is happening. I know my parents wanted new phones. Before this, they had changed plans and gotten a significant reduction in their monthly bill. When I explained to them that their bill will now go back up and they realized how much a new iPhone actually costs, they decided to keep using their "perfectly good" 2.5 year old phones. They do well enough financially to painlessly buy new $1K phones outright every year if they desired to do so but they won't; they don't see the need or the value.
I know I will think twice about upgrading my kids phones at this point on my group plan unless they are willing to cover the $30 difference added to our monthly bill.
Easy solution is to increase profit per iPhone to make up for lower sales.
we don't all have verizon or the same plans. for me was 200 for iphone + 25/month for 2 years. that's 800 total for 2 years of service and a phone. now 800 will barely pay for the phone.
needless to say, i'm gonna stay with my current phone till it breaks.
Fully agree! Apple needs products that make sense. iPhones that have good battery life instead of unnecessarily supper thin, Macs that do not overheat and noisy instead of unnecessarily super thin, and laptops that actually have usable keyboards instead of unnecessarily super thin.
Or those 60% could be people that are still on a 2 year contract with their iphone 5s. Everyone didn't buy their iphone 5s on day 1.
Still using an iPhone 5, and aside from the battery getting too old to hold a charge, I'm still happy with it.
I think there's at least three things going on here:
1) as stated, the US Dollar is getting too strong and exports suffer. Yes, it's complicated, but this is almost certainly a factor.
2) utility of the iPhone has plateaued. They add features, and processing capability, and such, but there aren't any new use cases driving me to upgrade. I can still make calls, send text and data, kind of browse the web, and play some games. Newer models mean I can do those things faster, but there's not much I can do with a new phone that I can't with an older one.
3) I have 3 products to upgrade, and don't need to keep them all at the latest and greatest. I have an iPhone, and iPad and a Watch. Each time I added a device, I gained utility, but now it's pretty much incremental, except, I hope, for the watch. So, when I ask myself whether I need a new phone, the question is why? I don't need a bigger screen, or faster games because I tend to use iPad for those purposes. Will 3D touch be more worth the money than updating my Watch to the second gen? Who knows, but I'm guessing not.
So, I'm probably part of the reason the iPhone sales are declining. If Apple releases a 128GB 4" phone, I'm in. If not, I'll probably see if I can just get the battery replaced in my current device and see what the new Watch has to offer.
I think there's at least three things going on here:
1) as stated, the US Dollar is getting too strong and exports suffer. Yes, it's complicated, but this is almost certainly a factor.
2) utility of the iPhone has plateaued. They add features, and processing capability, and such, but there aren't any new use cases driving me to upgrade. I can still make calls, send text and data, kind of browse the web, and play some games. Newer models mean I can do those things faster, but there's not much I can do with a new phone that I can't with an older one.
3) I have 3 products to upgrade, and don't need to keep them all at the latest and greatest. I have an iPhone, and iPad and a Watch. Each time I added a device, I gained utility, but now it's pretty much incremental, except, I hope, for the watch. So, when I ask myself whether I need a new phone, the question is why? I don't need a bigger screen, or faster games because I tend to use iPad for those purposes. Will 3D touch be more worth the money than updating my Watch to the second gen? Who knows, but I'm guessing not.
So, I'm probably part of the reason the iPhone sales are declining. If Apple releases a 128GB 4" phone, I'm in. If not, I'll probably see if I can just get the battery replaced in my current device and see what the new Watch has to offer.
It depends on what Apple's focus is; as their reported earnings today Apple generated the most revenue in the history of the company with the current product line, and sold the most iPhones in the history of the company. Therefore if the success of the company is graded by the number of products sold and their profitability they are on the right course. If the goal of the company is to produce a product that satisfies your individual taste they may have to rethink the business.
also reported today by Tim Cook Apple saw record number of Android switchers to iPhone last quarter
Your entitled to your opinions, of course, but they fly against the face of reality.
YoY sales aren't declining until next quarter when the "weird" looking iPhone will be a year and a half old and in part due to the phenomenal success of the "stupid" phablets launched last year.
Macs sales are up, not down.
Even Apple isn't immune to the global economic malaise and skyrocketing greenback. All things considered, Tim and company have done an amazing job... even if they didn't quite deliver the computers and design that *you* wanted.
Not surprising. Both the iPhone and iPad are getting stale.
It's been the same old for years, I certainly don't think it has much to do with screen size. Although I'm sure many people do want the smaller screen.
I'm also bored with recent Apple releases. It's frankly been more of the same. Granted the new Macbook was innovative from a form factor and aesthetics viewpoint.
I actually own an Android phone despite owning Mac and other Apple products. I'm also not particularly happy with pricing and specs in their recent products.
In my opinion they are going backwards in many ways.
It's been the same old for years, I certainly don't think it has much to do with screen size. Although I'm sure many people do want the smaller screen.
I'm also bored with recent Apple releases. It's frankly been more of the same. Granted the new Macbook was innovative from a form factor and aesthetics viewpoint.
I actually own an Android phone despite owning Mac and other Apple products. I'm also not particularly happy with pricing and specs in their recent products.
In my opinion they are going backwards in many ways.
The real problem with Apple is they make such high quality products they don't always need upgrading every 6 months unlike Samsung.
I still use a MacPro desktop made in 2008 to do music recording and Video editing and it works flawlessly the only thing upgraded was the HD to a solid state drive. How many computers from other manufactures would still be relevant 8 years later?
I have so many friends using old generation iPads they don't replace them because they still work great.
Apple is doing everything right but they can't control the macroeconomy and the price of oil.
PS: I was one of those people screaming from the top of the mountain that Apple made a big mistake making a bigger phone as I thought the iPhone 4s was the perfect device. Now that I have a 6s plus I could never imagine using a smaller phone.
One thing that amazes me on these forums is the grandiosity of people's opinions thinking they know what is the best form or what apple should or should not do. Hate to shatter your bubble but there is a whole world out there and Apple is designing products for the masses not just for you.
I still use a MacPro desktop made in 2008 to do music recording and Video editing and it works flawlessly the only thing upgraded was the HD to a solid state drive. How many computers from other manufactures would still be relevant 8 years later?
I have so many friends using old generation iPads they don't replace them because they still work great.
Apple is doing everything right but they can't control the macroeconomy and the price of oil.
PS: I was one of those people screaming from the top of the mountain that Apple made a big mistake making a bigger phone as I thought the iPhone 4s was the perfect device. Now that I have a 6s plus I could never imagine using a smaller phone.
One thing that amazes me on these forums is the grandiosity of people's opinions thinking they know what is the best form or what apple should or should not do. Hate to shatter your bubble but there is a whole world out there and Apple is designing products for the masses not just for you.
And if you don't want to pay the full price for an iPhone up front... your carrier might offer a payment plan option.
My 64GB iPhone 6S Plus is a manageable $35 a month on Verizon.
For comparison... flagship Galaxy smartphones are around $30 a month.