Apple Reportedly Plans to Cut Price of iPhone XR in Japan Due to Poor Sales and Restart iPhone X Production

[ondert]

Tim Cook’s greed? What the hell are u talking about? Just because you’ve been accustomed to buying cheap Android handsets doesn’t mean there’s not a market for quality iPhones.

Samsung paying some commenters here no doubt...

Have you ever looked at my signature? I'm using all Apple products at home and on the go, and Apple's prices are going up year by year, while the phone market is getting saturated and there is already much competition.
The other side, Mac line-up seems complicated, underpowered and overpriced. I have used 15" MacBook Pros for many years but last year I sold mine and passed to iMac, because latest macbook line-up consists many heat, software, and hardware issues. They just care about good looking, slimmer every-year Macs which caused all those issues. So, iMac seemed to me a safer choice for now. Tim Cook's Apple doesn't care Mac users like before and they want all to use iOS devices and charge so much for their products.

 

[Khedron]

Here’s another way Apple could win back its customer base. They should implement an iPoints program. Every time you buy an Apple product, laptop, iPad, Mac mini, watch, phone, accessory you are given so many iPoints. They iPoints can later be redeemed for cash towards a new Apple product. So if you buy a watch one yr and an iPad the next on the third yr you could redeem those iPoints of say $50.00 towards a new iPhone. It would be Apples way of saying thanks and apppreciating it’s customers coming back every yr. Rewards program for valued customers.

Tim won't even give iPhone buyers a headphone adapter or SIM tool, or Pencil owners a spare nib.

 

[corebeliefs]

If it was a shakedown, Apple wouldn't choose to support five-year-old hardware and optimize the os to run smoothly on those devices. This is unheard of in android-world, so I'll forgiving you for missing the obvious point.

My posts are meant to be read with a smile, if you don't do that on a forum you're going to go old and gray.

No one should need to hold on to five year old hardware, with all the limitations in camera, speed, screen quality, etc., in order for Apple to be seen as affordable. I think a lot of customers find that line of reasoning just plays into the hands of Apple's greed machine.

No disrespect to your father loving the device, I try to hold onto hardware. But five years is an extremely long time to boast about keeping with, to avoid paying Apple's highly inflated new prices. That's where I think you are undermining the first thing you said, which was Apple's prices are not that bad because there is a range of prices. There isn't, there's either hold onto your device forever like you're doing, or pony up for prices that start higher than every other manufacturer. Computers, they start at 799 for a headless keyboardless Mac. Wheress every other computer maker has more modest versions that get you in at $300-400 on up. That's a range of prices. (Yes, we've all given up that Apple would ever do this, but having the only modern MacBook start at $1,100, that's way in the other direction.)

 

[MrGuder]

Next year.
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Apple hasn't lost any customer base. It still continues to increase.

I’m talking about buying something from Apple every yr. I haven’t bought an iPhone since the iPhone 6s. Their phones are gettting priced out for most of the public.

 

[The Game 161]

Phones in general are very high price and people don’t need to
Upgrade so often. I still don’t see prices dropping anytime soon as while sales might be down they are still selling a high number. Higher than anybody else

 

[isotropic]

According to MixPanel - https://mixpanel.com/trends/#report/iphone_Xs, the new iPhone lineup share is at ~5.5% while iPhone X is at 11.7%. Am I reading this wrong? Doesn’t this mean that the new iPhones are actually selling very well?

 

[Starfyre]

If this really happens it is a win for the consumer over profit hungry enterprise. Apple needs to add more value into their products while keeping prices reasonable.

 

[jonnysods]

They got greedy with the X. They took it too far this year. Now you pay the price.

 

[apolloa]

What a totally unsurprising disaster driven by their sheer unadulterated utterly shameful endless greed...

I can’t see their share price going anywhere other then south with this news, deservedly so too. Because that’s how you hurt the board.

 

[Rob_2811]

Why do people whine about prices? Too expensive for you, don't buy it. Problem solved.

There are tons of Windows computers you can buy cheap, and crappy android phones that wont ever see one update to buy

Apple has far more insight into what consumers buy of their products and at what price points than a group of people chatting in a forum ever will. Apple, like all businesses, sets prices according to what they perceive the market will bear.

The iPhone you buy will last you a LONG time if you care, i've been keeping my iphones 3.5 years on average. Name me one android phone that gets support that long? Apple is likely charging more because they see consumers are using their phones years longer than they used to...

You've also been having the performance of your phone throttled. Swings.. roundabouts ...

 

[Baymowe335]

How do you feel about Apple no longer reporting sales numbers for its products starting next month ?

I love it. iPhone sales are flat to slow growth. We know this. Analysts have been too focused on unit sales for years. Apple would report a revenue and profit beat and analysts would say they expected 62M iPhones and Apple sold 61.2M. Apple never guided for unit sales, so these were always based on made up projections. Bad for investors.

Any long term investor should welcome the story shifting to services and the overall business.

We will get new reporting for services, so they added more visibility there.
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Until of course they praise Apple at which point their credibility is beyond reproach right

We don’t have to worry about praising Apple. If you follow the company, it’s never good enough.

They reported $60B in profit last year.

That’s almost 3X as much as ANY company, yet here we are wringing our hands about iPhone sales.

 

[Act3]

a 5.6% revenue gain on $88B is still a lot. It's $5B, which is larger than most entire company revenue. Let's say they post $94B (as they have beaten upper end guidance 2 Xmas quarters in a row by ~$1B). That would be close to 7% growth in the toughest compare quarter possible.

They just posted 20% revenue growth in the prior quarter, so the 90 day clock for 1 quarter doesn't matter as much as putting up consistently positive revenue growth over the entire year. Long term investors see the profit machine and lower growth with the buyback will still produce double digit EPS growth over time. The truth is, Apple doesn't have to grow quickly if they are buying back $100B in stock per year. That alone will be 12% growth with flat profit at current valuation.

So does this current drop in share price helps Apple buy back their shares of stock for a cheaper price ?

 

[WatchFromAfar]

you buy will last you a LONG time if you care, i've been keeping my iphones 3.5 years on average. Name me one android phone that gets support that long? Apple is likely charging more because they see consumers are using their phones years longer than they used to...

Well You've hedged your bets by saying 3.5 years because Google Pixel series of phones get "minimum 3 years of Android update support"

https://www.quora.com/Which-Android-smartphone-brand-had-the-longest-update-support

If three years is the minimum then I don't think it's unreasonable to expect three and half do you?

That's an Android phone named for you.

 

[HiRez]

Ugh. This is going to be a rough year for AAPL stock if these iPhone demand rumors are true (and it’s looking pretty likely they are at this point).

 

[Baymowe335]

So does this current drop in share price helps Apple buy back their shares of stock for a cheaper price ?

Correct. Long term, drops in share price are welcomed when you have a buyback as big as Apple. They have $71B left in their current share repurchase program, meaning they will be $71B in stock regardless. Lower prices, more shares. If you sell, Apple is buying.

 

[Act3]

Correct. Long term, drops in share price are welcomed when you have a buyback as big as Apple. They have $71B left in their current share repurchase program, meaning they will be $71B in stock regardless. Lower prices, more shares. If you sell, Apple is buying.

So these "fake" news reports help apple out in the long term? They can get more shares off the street for cheaper?

 

[sevoneone]

Their prices have certainly increased but I also think the product lineup has become confusing to the average consumer.

X, 8 plus, 8, 7 plus, 7 and SE made sense... There was clear differentiation of features and price to create a hierarchy of 6 products. Which is kind of an accomplishment given that they are all fundamentally the same device.

Now the website lists Xs Max, Xs, Xr, 8 plus, 8, 7plus, 7. Especially in the high end there is tons of feature overlap and not much price difference.

This. Cracks me up how Apple used to rip on Android for being fragmented and now they are doing the same thing to the iPhone now. It makes sense to keep the previous years model around. Splitting the line into premium (XS) and standard (XR) tiers breaks what made the iPhone great. Every year there was one iPhone for everyone, everyone got the best technology. Then the X drew a line and showed that people will pay a premium for new tech/new design.

There should be no XR phone. There should be an XS and XS+ available in XR colors with an OLED display and a reasonable starting price of $699.

Here’s another way Apple could win back its customer base. They should implement an iPoints program. Every time you buy an Apple product, laptop, iPad, Mac mini, watch, phone, accessory you are given so many iPoints. They iPoints can later be redeemed for cash towards a new Apple product. So if you buy a watch one yr and an iPad the next on the third yr you could redeem those iPoints of say $50.00 towards a new iPhone. It would be Apples way of saying thanks and apppreciating it’s customers coming back every yr. Rewards program for valued customers.

Create more artificial brand lock-in by making their customers feel obligated to buy Apple because they have $250 in Disney Dollars, I mean Apple credit they can't use otherwise? Sorry, just NO.

Go back to making products that are well engineered, well designed, competitive and priced appropriately. Your customers should organically want to purchase from you again.

 

[Rob_2811]

Realistically, I don’t know how much I actually believe in these analyst predictions. Last year, as an example, the 2017 iPhone X was rumored to be decreased in production early on after its initial release, yet Tim Cook stated that the X was the most popular selling iPhone every week for that quarter. So what does that tell you?

Analysts don’t have inside information to Apple suppliers, they merely are making predictions based off what they believe, not what they know.

Um yes they do. How do you think Ming Chi Kuo can churn out predictions about future Apple releases with 90% accuracy, they aren't just lucky guesses are they?
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So does Bentley. What’s your point? If you can’t afford a Bentley then buy a Honda. If you can’t afford Apple by Samsung.

Apple 2018 = Hondas at Bentley prices.

 

[tromboneaholic]

I’m talking about buying something from Apple every yr. I haven’t bought an iPhone since the iPhone 6s. Their phones are gettting priced out for most of the public.

I bought an iPhone X last year and an Apple Watch and iPad this year, and I'm not in the 1%. Maybe they buy a phone every year, but I don't think most people ever have.

 

[Mr. Dee]

Not in a million years.



They will drop the iPhone 7, but why would they give you so much storage standard in the poor-person model?



It was rumored that they would drop the price to $899 this year, but they didn't. I'm THRILLED that it didn't work for them. Hope they get screwed even more.



Not always! You have a brand and that's your most valuable asset.

Gucci, Chanel and the like literally burn old stock. If it's sold at discounted prices, it damages brand value - and the people buying that $3,000 handbag won't be so inclined to do that when you can wait some time and have it for $1,000.

Poor person model? Seriously, you have issues.

 

[kemal]

Face ID costs money. Should have put the money into the rear camera.

 

[Matthew.H]

Gucci, Chanel and the like literally burn old stock. If it's sold at discounted prices, it damages brand value - and the people buying that $3,000 handbag won't be so inclined to do that when you can wait some time and have it for $1,000.

Personally I find the act of burning perfectly good items disgusting. If companies have unsold stock and don't want to sell it at a discount they should donate it for the homeless charities to use. It's been done before with counterfeit clothes seized by Trading Standards here in the UK. The charity removes the brand logos/labels and adds their own, that could be done with luxury brands overstock instead of them burning it.

 

[tromboneaholic]

My posts are meant to be read with a smile, if you don't do that on a forum you're going to go old and gray.

No one should need to hold on to five year old hardware, with all the limitations in camera, speed, screen quality, etc., in order for Apple to be seen as affordable. I think a lot of customers find that line of reasoning just plays into the hands of Apple's greed machine.

No disrespect to your father loving the device, I try to hold onto hardware. But five years is an extremely long time to boast about keeping with, to avoid paying Apple's highly inflated new prices. That's where I think you are undermining the first thing you said, which was Apple's prices are not that bad because there is a range of prices. There isn't, there's either hold onto your device forever like you're doing, or pony up for prices that start higher than every other manufacturer. Computers, they start at 799 for a headless keyboardless Mac. Wheress every other computer maker has more modest versions that get you in at $300-400 on up. That's a range of prices. (Yes, we've all given up that Apple would ever do this, but having the only modern MacBook start at $1,100, that's way in the other direction.)

My point was that if it was a shakedown, Apple would drop support for older devices like most other manufacturers do. My dad is old school and doesn't like change.

For me 3 years is the limit on how long I keep a phone, so iPhone 6 to iPhone X was a worthwhile upgrade to me last year. I expect to keep the X another 2 years, and I don't feel anyone at Apple is taking advantage of me or my dad.

 

[44267547]

Um yes they do. How do you think Ming Chi Kuo can churn out predictions about future Apple releases with 90% accuracy

No, in fact, they don’t. _No one_ has inside quantitative data to Apple’s supplier relations to what Apple Can produce in terms of quantities with manufacturing on mass levels with the iPhone and components. Unless you have something contradicting, please provide a direct source how they have direct access exact numbers.

FTR, Ming Kuo always makes predictions, whether his predictions are Accurate or not is entirely different segments. ‘Sources’ like WSJ, the Wall Street and Nikkei are mudslingers, The same articles resurfaced and are regurgitated every single year, and has been proven to be wrong.

 

[ValO]

So does this current drop in share price helps Apple buy back their shares of stock for a cheaper price ?

Apple could surely influence stock prices with their forecast for this quarter. For stock buyback, but..
They also could have made the choice for 1 Big Bang to stop all the speculation about their iPhone sales from supply chain, etc and all negative influences on their stock prices from rumors and press.
By forecasting lower earnings than expected, and announcing they will no longer give sales numbers , and in the end beating their forecast by quite a margin, could be just the way to do that, and cast doubt on all these analysts and rumors.

My bet is that they will beat their forecast revenue by at least 2 to 3%.(about 95 billion US dollar).

For me the only right thing apple can do in the future is giving in to the pricing complaints. All products like iPhone, ipad and MacBooks are at least $50 too expensive.

iPhone XR 699, iPhone XS 949, max 1049
iPad Pro 10.5 599, iPad Pro 11 749, iPad Pro 13 949
MacBook 128GB 1049, MacBook Air 1149

Etc, etc . They have to give in soon, but perhaps by not stating sales nr’ s, while releasing new product categories and services , they can still show growth in revenue and decreasing their prices at the same time.