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Bodygard

macrumors regular
Aug 12, 2009
128
33
smartphones are just consumer products with an extremely short lifecycle.

Short lifecycle. That's it. Chinese people are well aware of that, they buy cheaper smartphones, 150-200-300 and then after 6months or 1year they buy a new one with upgrades, new OS iteration etc
 

rp2011

macrumors 68020
Oct 12, 2010
2,335
2,653
Hey it's ok. If other mfgs can make something their customers can afford then great.
An Apple iPhone would be a luxury item. It's something people could aspire to buy if they so felt it warranted the extra cost.

..and that's why Apple needs to stay on top of the competition and never become a commodity product.
 

69Mustang

macrumors 604
Jan 7, 2014
7,895
15,043
In between a rock and a hard place
I would say iPhone would be considered a premium product, kind of similar to an entry level Lexus or BMW 328, that kind of level, but it's not an exotic or luxury product.
I gotta agree with @DUIduckSAUCE on this one. The iPhone is a mass produced, high volume, commodity electronic device that sold in Walmart and was featured in buy one get one free offers from carriers. It's a high trim level Camry. There's nothing wrong with that.
 
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Piggie

macrumors G3
Feb 23, 2010
9,117
4,016
Hey it's ok. If other mfgs can make something their customers can afford then great.
An Apple iPhone would be a luxury item. It's something people could aspire to buy if they so felt it warranted the extra cost.

..and that's why Apple needs to stay on top of the competition and never become a commodity product.

This always makes me laugh.
You do realise how many iPhones people own?

Apple can never be a luxury product, simply because the whole premise is for it to be so expensive and so luxury many don't have one.

iPhones are mass consumer devices that even children own.
Not wishing to pay more than needed for the same or better features has nothing to do with buying cheap cos you can't afford Apple.
 

I7guy

macrumors Nehalem
Nov 30, 2013
34,218
23,959
Gotta be in it to win it
I gotta agree with @DUIduckSAUCE on this one. The iPhone is a mass produced, high volume, commodity electronic device that sold in Walmart and was featured in buy one get one free offers from carriers. It's a high trim level Camry. There's nothing wrong with that.
Totally agree. And on that scale some other phones are 10 year old civics. So pick your scale.:)
 

I7guy

macrumors Nehalem
Nov 30, 2013
34,218
23,959
Gotta be in it to win it
I mean, I would have chosen less expensive brands like Kia or Hyundai to represent less expensive brands like Oppo or Xiaomi, making the analogy much more appropriate, but hey if your goal was to be derogatory... a 10 year old Civic fits the bill I guess.
I was wondering why the iPhone went from a BMW to a Toyota. But sometimes the nuances get lost in online forums; do I wasn't being derogatory only wondering what the scale of phone models are mapped to cars.
 

dilbert99

macrumors 68020
Jul 23, 2012
2,193
1,829
Sales figures say nothing. Profitability speaks. If I could sell cars at one dollar each I'd outsell the entire car industry, never mind the fact that I'd be losing money and my cars would be terrible.
[doublepost=1487426921][/doublepost]
No, he doesn't. There's no way to make it secure.
From what I heard on mac break weekly podcast he is still tweeting from an android phone on his personal twitter account
 

adib

macrumors 6502a
Jun 11, 2010
710
559
Singapore
It seems everybody has missed a very important point, subtle but incredibly important. For those who have never worked or lived in Asia this will sound strange but the number '7' is bad (bad unlucky in the asian psyche) whereas the number 8 is good (incredibly lucky). So If Apple focus on the number '8', I predict a large growth in Asian sales and riot in the shops.

I'm sorry but number "7" is also a good number in most Chinese cultures although not as good as "8". It's the number "4" that is often regarded as unlucky.

ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numbers_in_Chinese_culture
 

69Mustang

macrumors 604
Jan 7, 2014
7,895
15,043
In between a rock and a hard place
I was wondering why the iPhone went from a BMW to a Toyota. But sometimes the nuances get lost in online forums; do I wasn't being derogatory only wondering what the scale of phone models are mapped to cars.
Just my opinion, but I think it's a more appropriate because the iPhone is a high volume, commodity device analogous to a high volume, commodity car brand like a Toyota to Samsung's Ford. They are ubiquitous. They're everywhere and can be purchased just about anywhere. That's not BMW, Audi, Porsche, Ferrari, or any other high end brand that some like to throw around as comparisons to iPhones. Again, it's not a bad thing.
 

Abazigal

Contributor
Jul 18, 2011
19,560
22,020
Singapore
I'm sorry but number "7" is also a good number in most Chinese cultures although not as good as "8". It's the number "4" that is often regarded as unlucky.

ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numbers_in_Chinese_culture
7 might have a negative connotation if used with 4 (74 pronounced separately sounds like someone telling you to go and die), but on its own, 7 doesn't really sound offensive to my knowledge at least.
 

TechGeek76

Suspended
Jul 18, 2016
259
419
I mean, I would have chosen less expensive brands like Kia or Hyundai to represent less expensive brands like Oppo or Xiaomi, making the analogy much more appropriate, but hey if your goal was to be derogatory... a 10 year old Civic fits the bill I guess.
Speaking of Civics, seen the type R coming to the US?
 

Shirasaki

macrumors P6
May 16, 2015
15,608
10,899
No, he doesn't. There's no way to make it secure.
Same applies for iPhone. I doubt Trump would use only an iPhone for all his twitter campaign.
He will use a device that could not even be seen by others in USA for all critical communications.
If anyone here has shopped for Apple products in China...

Can you tell me what the regular retail price (e.g. the price in Apple's own stores or online) for particular Apple products is? I'm asking for the price in the local currency, not in U.S. Dollars. If you can tell me the price for particular models (e.g. iPhone 7 Plus 128GB), that would be appreciated. And also, when that price was from (e.g. within the last 3 months or 2 years ago)?

Operating margins for Apple's Greater China segment have generally been higher than for its America and Europe Segments. So I'm curious about pricing there (and, for that matter, in Japan).

Thanks in advance.
You could look up Apple site for more info, such as http://www.apple.com/cn , and http://www.apple.com/jp . They still list iPhone 6s series and iPhone 7 series price. Both in China and in Japan, Apple store price is very similar to retail price in some local stores.
 

MrNomNoms

macrumors 65816
Jan 25, 2011
1,156
294
Wellington, New Zealand
What on earth are you on about. With that 'logic' I bet you still believe the earth is flat too. Ha ha joker

He's probably the sort who believes that it is the end of the world because Apple chose to phase out their wireless router and time capsules. Apple operates like any other business - they enter into a niche because they believe that the market is failing to deliver a solution to a certain section of customers but we're now in 2017 and the router space isn't the dire wasteland that it was when the airport was originally launched. It is amazing how none of these complainers ever talk about when Apple exited from being an ISP, from selling printers, scanners, digital cameras etc. or is it the fact that they've only jumped onto the Apple bandwagon in the last couple of years and are suddenly an expert on all things Apple because they own a single solitary iPhone.
 

ndolebay

macrumors member
Apr 8, 2014
97
47
It seems everybody has missed a very important point, subtle but incredibly important. For those who have never worked or lived in Asia this will sound strange but the number '7' is bad (bad unlucky in the asian psyche) whereas the number 8 is good (incredibly lucky). So If Apple focus on the number '8', I predict a large growth in Asian sales and riot in the shops.

No, not this reason.

I am a Chinese, 7 is totally ok (4 is bad).

The reason why iPhone market share decline is that iPhone 7=iPhone 6s=iPhone 6, one case for 3 years, shame for Apple.

If iPhone 8 has a large growth, it will be because of the new look, not it's name.
 

rp2011

macrumors 68020
Oct 12, 2010
2,335
2,653
No, not this reason.

I am a Chinese, 7 is totally ok (4 is bad).

The reason why iPhone market share decline is that iPhone 7=iPhone 6s=iPhone 6, one case for 3 years, shame for Apple.

If iPhone 8 has a large growth, it will be because of the new look, not it's name.

It sold better than the 6s everywhere else so that's not it. It's basic economics.
Cheaper alternatives that people can afford.
 

44267547

Cancelled
Jul 12, 2016
37,642
42,491
An iPhone has WAY more "face" in China than a Xiaomi phone - most Chinese would love an iPhone, but it is priced too highly for them compared to Chinese smartphones.

I find this interesting. I can't speak for the economics in China. But I do I know Xiaomi is priced significantly lower than the iPhone, even though the iPhone is manufactured in China. Yet, it's priced unaffordably where it's not obtainable for the Chinese to own. It just seems ironic to me about two phones manufacturered in China. Assuming your post is true about the price point in China.
 

ndolebay

macrumors member
Apr 8, 2014
97
47
You're right, Chinese really like shopping abroad. But those people shopping abroad only accounting for a very small proportion of the total population.

iPhone is great, but too expensive for ordinary people. vivo, oppo, xiaomi and huawei are much cheaper, some of their smartphones are not bad, with some features Chinese really like, duo-sim cards for example, Apple will not provide duo-simcard iPhone in 2017 I think.





In my experience, the opposite is true.

There are a lot of tours for foreign vacationers that stop by a near-by shopping center. Many of these tour busses are exclusively for Chinese visitors. They will go into the stores, look for items, search all over the box to see where they were made. If they can't figure it out, they would ask someone working in the store where it was made. If it was made in China, they wouldn't buy it. Anywhere else was okay.

I personally think that textiles are good quality in China, but I wouldn't trust electronics if they were made with Chinese parts.





In my experience, this is all true.
[doublepost=1487487307][/doublepost]
It sold better than the 6s everywhere else so that's not it. It's basic economics.
Cheaper alternatives that people can afford.

Yes that's another reason, also ture.
 

obargy

macrumors regular
May 6, 2016
205
185
🇨🇦
As a Chinese, I noticed that more and more of my friends turn to iPhone from Samsung... especially the iPhone 6S and iPhone 7... Samsung is now literally dead in China... You could see notices of banning Samsung Note 7 everywhere in Chinese airports....

For your information, Chinese people prefer foreign brands... But Huawei and Lenovo are exceptions, they provide many high quality products. Oppo, Vivo, Xiaomi are pretty for the low-ends, Xiaomi is transforming itself from a low-end brand to a high-end brand using the bezel-free Xiaomi Mix.

We young people prefer Apple products, older people prefer Huawei. Huawei's high-end models are not cheaper than iPhone 7 in Chinese market.

I appreciate a lot Apple's eco system, it's amazing. There is no other company who could build such a complete eco system providing smart watch, smartphone, tablet and desktop based on its cloud service. In China, more and more people are realizing the huge difference between Apple and other phone manufacturers. We enjoy buying all Apple products and linking them via iCloud. It's just so convenient.
 

MH01

Suspended
Feb 11, 2008
12,107
9,297
Is it really too much to ask that a site that's been covering Apple for many years — as MacRumors has — show some understanding that marketshare is truly a second order consideration for any business? To say that "Apple has fallen to fifth place" and then compare their shipments to those of companies that are losing money and have been for years shows a profound lack of business sense. Running your competition into the ground is the opposite of losing.

https://techcrunch.com/2016/11/25/xiaomi-admits-it-doesnt-make-money-on-smartphone-hardware-sales/
Note that Apple makes money selling the phone and from multiple after purchase revenue streams.

Well there lies the hypocrisy.... when apple has markert share, it's a critical measure of success , Apple Watch , when apple drops to say like 5 here, it's a worthless measure , it's not MR editors that are the problem, it's the diehard fans that contradict themselves and frankly just make up facts to suit thier story at a given time, meaning no matter what the news, it's all positive for apple.

Hint markert share should be very very important to you, the less units you sell the higher the price to maintain the profits . That means you are paying more each year for apple products and gloating they have record profits while more and more people leave. I finally stopped when iPhone 7 plus with AppleCare was about £1038. Next model is rumoured to go up in price . Give me markert share and cheaper prices anytime!!!!!

Your current CEO is raising prices and saving money everywhere , like the crap intel modems, the more that leave, the more prices will raise so the ones staying can be smug they have the most expansive and therefore the best phone....no price does not mean the best. More and more people I see getting fed up with pricing and just wanting a phone, prices have frankly become ridiculous levels that surpass laptops
 
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