My point being - China is specifically being singled out here. Suggesting the issue is larger than just iPhone pricing (but I am sure this is what all the haters are going to latch on because it fits their narrative).
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Apple Lowers Revenue Guidance for Q1 2019 Citing 'Fewer iPhone Upgrades' Than Anticipated
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My point being - China is specifically being singled out here. Suggesting the issue is larger than just iPhone pricing (but I am sure this is what all the haters are going to latch on because it fits their narrative).
Same. My family's initial reaction to the announced prices was a big WTF.
And so is $65B. Will that be enough this time next year? The direction is certainly not the one Apple was aiming for. They have to change strategy or TC will be replaced rather soon.
swingerofbirch
macrumors 68040
He cited
"some customers taking advantage of significantly reduced pricing for iPhone battery replacements"
as a reason for fewer upgrades.
It's not just the price of the battery replacement.
It's that for the first time customers were given the knowledge that they could maintain original performance of their devices through battery replacement and that Apple had been throttling their phones.
"some customers taking advantage of significantly reduced pricing for iPhone battery replacements"
as a reason for fewer upgrades.
It's not just the price of the battery replacement.
It's that for the first time customers were given the knowledge that they could maintain original performance of their devices through battery replacement and that Apple had been throttling their phones.
Tim is cooked and almost ready to serve up to the unemployment line. The board must be selecting the right apple to put in his mouth.
I wonder how many are not doing this pro bono. Some of these members are so 'over the top' on defending any bad news for Apple
For starters, stop soldering the ram and storage on every single computer.
Hi Tim. It cost me under $35 to replace the battery on my iPhone 6 so now I am good to go for another 2-3 years. Yes, it still does everything I use it for even if it is already 4 years old. The only investors I answer to is my family household.
No one is arguing that he sucks as a CEO, he IS the most successful. But look at the missteps: raising prices in a slowing market, eliminating adapters and cables and then overcharging for them, ignoring Macs for years, giving customers an overpriced laptop with a terrible keyboard and mediocre battery life. I think Jony is part of the problem: his desire to make everything lighter and smaller ignores the desires of the power users who are buying the most expensive products he designs.
Tim isn't a product guy, he's a bean counter. And Jony is my age, which is frankly too old for someone who needs to be designing cutting-edge premium products. In fact, the whole Executive Team has grown too old, rich, and fat to innovate these days. Maybe it's time for some younger executives.
I use my Series 4, XS Max, iPad Pro, and 2018 MBP every day, and my life is better with them. But I don't see Apple innovating like some other companies out there today. Maybe they're scared?
This is not true, see quote directly from Cook:
"While Greater China and other emerging markets accounted for the vast majority of the year-over-year iPhone revenue decline, in some developed markets, iPhone upgrades also were not as strong as we thought they would be."
He says iPhone upgrades in developed countries were also not as strong as Apple thought.
If you read in between the lines, it's clear that pricing is the main issue, look at this other quote from Cook, he mentions 3 reasons, all 3 reasons have some relation with money:
"...we believe there are other factors broadly impacting our iPhone performance, including consumers adapting to a world with fewer carrier subsidies, US dollar strength-related price increases, and some customers taking advantage of significantly reduced pricing for iPhone battery replacements."
Pricing is the main issue. Wake up guys, worst mistake Apple and everyone can do is be purposefully blind to the real issue.
What's happening is China is in or near a recession, so Chinese consumers are decreasing purchases. Today, the China Caixin Manufacturing PMI reported slowing in general manufacturing in December. Fedex reported China's economy is slower that reported. No one, including Tim Cook, can change macroeconomic trends. Look to the Federal Reserve not hiking interest rates in 2019 and stopping 'Quantitative Tightening' (lowering it's balance sheet after post-2008's 'Quantitative Easing'). We might be next for a recession.
It’s evidence that China’s economy is slowing down. China is the world’s second largest economy, so if they catch a cold, other emerging markets get the flu, so to speak. At least some of it is the effect of the trade war with the US, but it may go beyond that.
When Steve Jobs came back first thing he did is clean up the product offerings because it was so dam confusing. Look at all the iPhone models they are selling now: https://www.apple.com/iphone/compare/
In the glory days (iPhone 6, 6S,7) I remember all my family, extended family and friends were upgrading. It seemed like everyone was getting a new iPhone.
Of all of them only one has an X/XS/XR and that’s me! They think I’m mad. Their unanimous opinion was that $1000 for a phone is just ridiculous. None like the XR either (big, heavy, high end price for a mid range phone, ugly bezels are words they have used)
Most of my friends think their current phone “will simply just have to do”.
Stupid pricing to unaffordable levels to be blunt.
iPad is a similar story (low end not much of an upgrade , “pro” models priced to extortionate levels)
Of all of them only one has an X/XS/XR and that’s me! They think I’m mad. Their unanimous opinion was that $1000 for a phone is just ridiculous. None like the XR either (big, heavy, high end price for a mid range phone, ugly bezels are words they have used)
Most of my friends think their current phone “will simply just have to do”.
Stupid pricing to unaffordable levels to be blunt.
iPad is a similar story (low end not much of an upgrade , “pro” models priced to extortionate levels)
Apple's profit margin as per their P&L statement is 21%, which is less than that of Google(22%).
Very courageous of Apple to come clean with a warning instead of trying to stuff the channel for a quarter or two hoping things improve. Says a lot about the ethics of the company.
This news actually says more about the state of the general economy (consumer is tapped out, we’re seeing a slow down in auto sales too) than about Apple’s product portfolio. They could do a bit more to wow their customers, but if it were not for Apple, the cell phone market would be like the printer market where you buy cheap stuff but it looks ugly and doesn’t work.
This news actually says more about the state of the general economy (consumer is tapped out, we’re seeing a slow down in auto sales too) than about Apple’s product portfolio. They could do a bit more to wow their customers, but if it were not for Apple, the cell phone market would be like the printer market where you buy cheap stuff but it looks ugly and doesn’t work.
To the extent that’s true, it’s also true that Apple made many times more than that on previous share repurchases. Its average price paid per share was still, as of the end of the September quarter, about $115.
That said, I’d expect - hindsight being what it is - they’d prefer that they hadn’t bought as many shares in the June and September quarters as they did.
That’s obviously the concern and why the broader market has been down recently.
I think that they did a decent job with pricing at the time prices were most likely set. I also think they guided accurately considering the global economy at the time they guided, but the global economy has slowed down more quickly than I think most expected, especially over the past few weeks.
I distinctly recall articles from last month essentially laughing off the idea of a recession beginning by the end of 2019, and now there's some walking back going on. This economy's not pretty for growth for any company.
Remember when Steve returned, and he consolidated the products down to a quadrant so it could be easily understood? We're right back to John Sculley's days, where it's not that obvious what the differences in the various products are, leading to consumer confusion. Haven't we seen this movie before?
Damn, talk about prophetic.
You mentioned they didn't buy back as many this quarter. So they obviously must have seen the storm coming.