Apple can't give consumers a valid reason to upgrade anymore. The improvements from year to year are barely incremental anymore. Let's face it, there really isn't any good reason to upgrade every 2 years. You are better off waiting 4 years. Throw in the fact that millennials don't care about technology as must as past generations, the market is starting to shrink.
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Apple Lowers Revenue Guidance for Q1 2019 Citing 'Fewer iPhone Upgrades' Than Anticipated
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Steve's point may be more relevant these days as "eco-system" revenues are also at risk as Apple struggles with offering attractive "gateway" products that connect new Apple users to Apple's other revenue streams (apps, storage, etc.). Apple's seeming focus on protecting ASP's makes it difficult for it to consider attractive entry-level products as an "investment" in maintaining and/or expanding its user base. Admittedly, there is a balancing act between short and long-term revenue potential, but Apple's recent product introductions and pricing (particularly in a volatile economic environment) seem skewed toward jeopardizing its long-term revenue potential.
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Sigh. No. Again:
1) Gross margins have been very consistent company-wide for 10 years now. That's 40 consecutive quarters.
2) The phones are more expensive because the parts cost more to make, and Apple has chosen a strategy that does not involve sacrificing GPM.
In fact...if you look at the historical data, it's often the case that Apple's latest iPhones actually have MSRPs that are LESS expensive relative to teardown costs than they were years ago.
Example: the iPhone 5S had a teardown cost around $200. (Source: https://www.techspot.com/news/54112...phone-5s-costs-199-to-build-5c-even-less.html). Do the math at the $649 MSRP. If we'd kept that multiplier and applied it to last year's iPhone X debut, the iPhone X would have been around $1149 at launch!
There's a lot that's happened and changed over the years, both in the industry and within Apple. That said, the narrative that "Apple got greedy and started charging too much" is simply not supported by the facts and evidence. People often confuse causation and correlation, and they engage in faulty inductive reasoning. Both of these are happening here.
I have bought higher and lower.
I just bought a lot quite a bit higher, but my average is still much lower.
I think long term, we won’t even remember this. I’d wait a couple days before buying. If it’s still $145ish Friday or so, I’d buy.
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Far, far more.
My 2 cents:
- Dolar too strong?: Yes.
- Overpriced phones vs innovation compared to other makers?: Also yes
- Fragmented iphone ecosystem with multitude of screen resolutions and cpu capabilities weakening the store, the apps and developer trust?: Yes
- Focus on the shareholders more than on customer?: Yes
- Arrogant attitude? ("our products are the best and that is a basically a fact"): Yes
- Failure to accept that chinese makers are innovating faster than Apple, including more useful patents per yer than Apple?: Yes
- Resting in its laurels attitude?: Yes
- Removing useful features and in-volution in some areas? (faceId replaced, instead of complement touch id, etc.): Yes
- Adequate and easy to use products?: Yes
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Yup, that was the beginning of the stock free fall. The market will sniff this stuff out. It's always ahead.
So one of his blames is cheaper battery replacements that made the throttling go away and many people realized that their three old phone is still good.
So the throttling was there just to help boost sells ?
So the throttling was there just to help boost sells ?
Who's left to buy iPhones? We're at peak smart phone.
Every where you go, there are people staring into their phones: at the restaurant, in restrooms, on the stair way, in the car.
When Apple announced they weren't giving out numbers anymore, I realized that was peak iPhone.
That's been trotted out so many times in the last 7 years, it's almost like 1000 monkeys typing randomly on a typewriter. Eventually one of those monkeys will type War and Peace.
In 2015, I bought an iPhone 6s plus 64G with the price of 6888CNY. It was the second grade of the top gears, 16/64/128G.
Now the same grade is iPhone xs max 256G, the price is 10999CNY, which is 60 percent higher.
I think that is the reason people in China no longer buy iPhone.
Now the same grade is iPhone xs max 256G, the price is 10999CNY, which is 60 percent higher.
I think that is the reason people in China no longer buy iPhone.
Wait guys, do you remember this news at the start of the year?
"Apple To Lose $10 Billion In iPhone Sales Due To $29 Battery Replacement Program"
https://www.techtimes.com/articles/...les-due-to-29-battery-replacement-program.htm
"While this is a good PR move for Apple to resolve the issue, we are concerned it could be a mild headwind for iPhone unit sales if more iPhone users decide to take the offer instead of upgrading to a new device," wrote analyst Mark Moskowitz and his team."
"Apple To Lose $10 Billion In iPhone Sales Due To $29 Battery Replacement Program"
https://www.techtimes.com/articles/...les-due-to-29-battery-replacement-program.htm
"While this is a good PR move for Apple to resolve the issue, we are concerned it could be a mild headwind for iPhone unit sales if more iPhone users decide to take the offer instead of upgrading to a new device," wrote analyst Mark Moskowitz and his team."
What is left out here is that Apple demand has collapsed in India as well. Blame the SE phone. Chinese phone makers are actively pursuing the Indian market. When Tim increased the price it was an eye opener for even wealthy Indians who are increasingly moving to Android/Samsung, Huawei, Pixel etc. Big strategic blunder by Apple to push the envelope on pricing. I own an iPhone X and a iPhone Xsmax. I felt that the higher price was not worth the minimal update in the iPhone Xs since iPhone 7+
Apple did state in unequivocal terms during the earnings call that sales would in fact be down for the quarter. There was no "burying" of any problem, which would in fact be illegal if it did occur.
Moreover, no other phone manufacturer breaks down unit sales. Not Samsung, not Nokia, and not Google. In fact, you'd have a hard time finding any electronics maker breaking down sales by product line.
And in case you missed it, the Chinese economy is not faring well.
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/19/china-q3-gdp-china-posts-economic-data-amid-trade-war-with-us.html
But go ahead and keep spewing that contrived nonsense.
I never used the term greedy, I pointed out that the phones are more expensive than they ever have been and if the perception is that Apple got greedy, and it increasingly is, then that is a problem.
Do you honestly think the average customer cares what Apples margins have been over the years? They care what the price is.
Of course all this is happening against a backdrop of Apple getting caught throttling the performance peoples phones and its CEO today openly admitting that the subsequent battery replacement programme deterred people from buying new phones.
That's exactly what I have been saying to every single one of your comments defending Apple in the past 2 months.
I have said (back in October/November) that their strategy isn't working. In which you replied "LOL, who cares about their strategies, they are killing it."
I have also highlighted their weak guidance. In which you defended Apple by saying that "It is wrong to compare guidance against actual..."
You are welcome.
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I think it's a lot of things. Price obviously, but also combined with devices lasting a lot longer. Now, the Ax series of chips deliver more power than most people need, so they can hang on to their phones a lot longer. I got 3 years out of my 6, and will probably get 4 or so out of my 8 Plus. So, because of this Apple raises their prices to get a little more out of me, and then I look at the prices and decide to hang on a year or more.
Because its true. It just isn't something that shows right away.
Time Cook and Company have spent the past seven years pulling all the value out of Apple. They've taken their customers for granted and it is finally at the point where it is beginning to show.
When you run off the smartphone cliff it happens a lot faster than people think it will. Nokia, Motorola, BlackBerry and HTC were all powerhouses at one point. Look where they all are now.
Apple was always in a precarious position. It was envitable that sooner or later we would hit peak smartphone. We may have finally hit that point.
The accurate comparison would be the current equivalent of the 6S Plus, which is the 8 Plus, and costs the same as the 6S.
That's exactly that I have been saying to every single one of your comments defending Apple in the past 2 months.
I have also said (back in October/November) that their strategy isn't working. In which you replied "LOL, who cares about their strategies, they are killing it."
Dont worry. They will redact their comments if/when Apple stock goes up from where it is today.