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

I7guy said:
Selling more isn't the end game. Selling more means more support costs, more warranty costs, etc. Apple sells a service and it prices it's service appropriately for it's market. Underpricing is just as bad overpricing (of course people would like to see apple tank and the price of the products slashed in half and Tim Cook fired and another Steve Jobs type reinstated, but none of that will happen in the real world ...the company is very smart and can turn on a dime).
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Ok so riddle me this, they price appropriately, but are cutting prices and reducing orders? If everything was all honkey dorey they wouldn’t have to do that stuff. And when does the price hiking stop? Next year are the prices gonna go up again?
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WannaGoMac said:
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 :D

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...
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I personally can afford everything I own and am not complaining about price. Just speaking to the majority of the comments I read and what I hear in person.

The fact that they’re slashing orders and rumored to be lowering prices does say something...
 
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It seems like Apple may need to rethink the pricing strategy next year. There is more competition from Huawei (at least outside the US), who is at least as vertically integrated as Samsung. Also, economies are struggling around the world.
 
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This is reminiscent of the initial price for PlayStation 3. Everyone wanted one, until the price was released. The competition (Xbox 360) was very similar in capability and was priced much cheaper. Many did not see the value and could not justify the price difference, hence the PlayStation brand losing a significant chunk of market share in that console generation.

Edit: in response, Sony lowered the price not long after realease
 
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newyorksole said:
Ok so riddle me this, they price appropriately, but are cutting prices and reducing orders? If everything was all honkey dorey they wouldn’t have to do that stuff. And when does the price hiking stop? Next year are the prices gonna go up again?
[doublepost=1542900144][/doublepost]

I personally can afford everything I own and am not complaining about price. Just speaking to the majority of the comments I read and what I hear in person.

The fact that they’re slashing orders and rumored to be lowering prices does say something...
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Riddle me this. Who confirmed the order cuts were real, were actually cuts, or reports were different than any other fake report of cuts every year at this time? Who confirmed their baseline supply, shifts to other vendors (they have 3 for FaceID) or channel inventory?

Further, are the price cuts even real, and why just Japan if it’s so bad?

Until Apple reports, this is the usual fake news for stock price manipulation.
 
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LordVic said:
This misses the point that everything else is generally tied to their iOS device sales. Most of their services rely on iOS users using those services (Due to a lack of cross platform support for most of their services).

if iPhone sales tank, it's very likely that other categories (with some lag) will also eventually decrease. Less iOS eusers means less service revenues, less accessories revenues (less watch sales, less homepod sales, less AirPod, Less, dongles, etc).

this is why investors are spooked about the increased prices and the lack of volume reporting. there's a holistic picture here, and impact against iphone sales has further reaching affects outside of just the iPhone category.
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I agree 100%. I guess I wasn’t very clear before. Some analysts (and posters) are focused on Apple’s overall increased guidance for Q1 without taking into account the iPhone has stagnant unit sales for four years now and could have reached peak revenue last year. Devices drive everything Apple does due to their relatively closed ecosystem. If devices peak then the amount of services flowing over those devices will also peak shortly thereafter.
 
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maflynn said:
I think apple is reaping what they have sown. I think they will be facing this issue worldwide to some degree. The prices are too high to justify the phones, financing (or leasing) masked the high cost to some degree but the Xs and Xs Max are so expensive, its a lot even if you finance them over two years.
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They are absolutely reaping what they have sown. The fact that Cook has allowed this to come to fruition clearly demonstrates his inadequate performance as a CEO. Customers are tired of the “Magic” tricks. Apple has lost touch with its users in its quest for shareholder returns. The next 24m will determine the future of Apple. If the BOD is living in reality they will replace Cook. Unfortunately IMO Arthur and Tim are too close, and Arthur may not see the Forrest through the trees. This is not something that one can ride out. The current underpinnings of Apple’s Business Model are proving to be flawed. Once Steve’s 5 year plan was gone the company went off on a elitist mind set.

The new sales agreement with Amazon is something I never thought would happen. It’s obviously an urgent concession to Bezos to increase sales. I don’t see how this will not impact Apple’s Brick and Mortor business.

Completely avoidable situation if one removes Tim’s lusting greed for stock prices. :apple:
 
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This smells like more fake news designed to manipulate the stock more. Their sources are “people familiar with the region?”

If it’s true, which I don’t even believe:

1) If price is so wrong, why just Japan?
2) How much will the discount be?
3) When will it be implemented?
4) Why are iPhone XS (more expensive) not being reported as dropping price?
5) Are they really going to sell iPhone X versus dropping the price of the XS? Doubt that too.

Until we know if it truly happened, I don’t believe anything I read from outside reports on Apple. It’s all fake news.
 
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newyorksole said:
Ok so riddle me this, they price appropriately, but are cutting prices and reducing orders? If everything was all honkey dorey they wouldn’t have to do that stuff. And when does the price hiking stop? Next year are the prices gonna go up again?
[doublepost=1542900144][/doublepost]

I personally can afford everything I own and am not complaining about price. Just speaking to the majority of the comments I read and what I hear in person.

The fact that they’re slashing orders and rumored to be lowering prices does say something...
Click to expand...
There is no context to what apple is doing. Historically sales slow around the February time frame, after holiday shopping and the same articles have been popping up as long as I have been here. In another thread, it was being discussed how an iphone 5 64 gb was $849 off contract, $399 on contract. The price was masked. The xs max seems reasonable when you realize in 2012 the iphone 5 64 gb was $849 off contract.

So for apple this is business as usual, at least as I see it. Time will prove this comment, right or wrong.
 
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78Bandit said:
I agree 100%. I guess I wasn’t very clear before. Some analysts (and posters) are focused on Apple’s overall increased guidance for Q1 without taking into account the iPhone has stagnant unit sales for four years now and could have reached peak revenue last year. Devices drive everything Apple does due to their relatively closed ecosystem. If devices peak then the amount of services flowing over those devices will also peak shortly thereafter.
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yup!

there might be some lag to the services/accessories matching iPhone if there are decreases since existing user bases still exists and buys stuff for their products. But eventually, decrease user base would start to have decreasing prospects on everything else in their product lineup.

Mac sales for example might also decrease. Less and less users using iOS means less users using iOS apps and less money to be made. Since MacOS is the only platform to develope iOS apps on, this would also potentially lead to less Mac's being sold.

as you pointed out, this is one of the pitfalls of a closed ecosystem. there are lots of bonuses and pluses to them, But there are potential issues if you start having sales volume issues.
 
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Wiesenlooser said:
The iPhone XR makes you look stupid on two fronts:


- It makes you look like you can't afford the "real" iPhone

- And yet, It is still a very expensive phone. It is okay for Apple to have a lower priced model (SE), but it can't be priced the same as the flagship models of the competition.
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Really? Maybe some people prefer colors and are sick of silver, gray and gold. Maybe they want the most battery life. It’s funny after the event and even in reviews I don’t remember anyone saying the XR is just a poor mans XS. In fact I remember some predicting that the XR would sell better then the XS because the latter looks the same as the X and other hardware improvements were minimal.
 
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Glideslope said:
They are absolutely reaping what they have sown. The fact that Cook has allowed this to come to fruition clearly demonstrates his inadequate performance as a CEO. Customers are tired of the “Magic” tricks. Apple has lost touch with its users in its quest for shareholder returns. The next 24m will determine the future of Apple. If the BOD is living in reality they will replace Cook. Unfortunately IMO Arthur and Tim are too close, and Arthur may not see the Forrest through the trees. This is not something that one can ride out. The current underpinnings of Apple’s Business Model are proving to be flawed. Once Steve’s 5 year plan was gone the company went off on a elitist mind set.

The new sales agreement with Amazon is something I never thought would happen. It’s obviously an urgent concession to Bezos to increase sales. I don’t see how this will not impact Apple’s Brick and Mortor business.

Completely avoidable situation if one removes Tim’s lusting greed for stock prices. :apple:
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Apple is very good at playing chess, this is just another chess move, if in fact this proves to be true.

The WSJ has been known to be wrong on occasion. Or maybe the market in Japan is very different and as such, a different regional tactic is needed.
 
LordVic said:
The comment about Cook's greed comes potentially from the point that the bulk of his pay / renumeration is via stock and stock options. The better the stock does, the better financially he is off. Slippage of stock value directly takes away from his own personal value.

This "marriage" to stock valuation can set the public image that his primary motivation is directed at propping up stock value and appeasing to wallstreet investors first and foremost instead of product quality.

The Profit margins in place tend to help lend credence to this, as we see that pricing tends to be focused first and foremost on maintaining specific margins rather than maintaining specific volumes and product differentiation from the rest of the market.

We also see this with the decision to stop reporting unit sales (which can be used as indication of company direction and market penetration) while raising prices accross the board on all product, even though many of those products have not necessarily shown justification in comparable market to those increase

The simple point is that Apple, like every other company isn't going to maintain record growths forever, especially if they don't either create new categories or enter into new categories. The need to jack up prices to make up the difference in revenue growth is just further evidence that Cook is more about appeasing stock buyers than long term business strategy for success. he's willing to trade company good will for stock increases.

IMHO, a better long term strategy is to keep pricing moderately reasonable (and yes, can be slightly above the competition, it is Apple), but outright telling wallstreet the days of record growth are over, deal with it, or sell the stock back to Apple. at some point in every comanies career, they have to transition from growth to stability. Apple is trying to do both.
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Why would these two things not align though? Stock price is not just based on margin but overall sales which is tied very much to demand—how much people actually want to buy your products at the end of the day.
 
I7guy said:
Apple is very good at playing chess, this is just another chess move, if in fact this proves to be true.

The WSJ has been known to be wrong on occasion. Or maybe the market in Japan is very different and as such, a different regional tactic is needed.
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It’s not a prediction but a firm source. Also, carrier cut is how apple did it in the last for iPhone 8 already, so nothing new here.
 
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LordVic said:
This misses the point that everything else is generally tied to their iOS device sales. Most of their services rely on iOS users using those services (Due to a lack of cross platform support for most of their services).

if iPhone sales tank, it's very likely that other categories (with some lag) will also eventually decrease. Less iOS eusers means less service revenues, less accessories revenues (less watch sales, less homepod sales, less AirPod, Less, dongles, etc).

this is why investors are spooked about the increased prices and the lack of volume reporting. there's a holistic picture here, and impact against iphone sales has further reaching affects outside of just the iPhone category.
Click to expand...
It’s impossible for Apple to hide declining hardware sales. Eventually it will show up in decreased revenues and profits.
 
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WannaGoMac said:
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...
Click to expand...
Ok this is a good point, but I still think the pricing is too much. Granted I went through a career change last year and am making less (in a job I thoroughly enjoy in comparison) so that likely has coloured my view.
 
newyorksole said:
Ok so riddle me this, they price appropriately, but are cutting prices and reducing orders? If everything was all honkey dorey they wouldn’t have to do that stuff. And when does the price hiking stop? Next year are the prices gonna go up again?
[doublepost=1542900144][/doublepost]

I personally can afford everything I own and am not complaining about price. Just speaking to the majority of the comments I read and what I hear in person.

The fact that they’re slashing orders and rumored to be lowering prices does say something...
Click to expand...

Yeah, i believe the slashing when I see it. The "analysts" say this EVERY DARN year. Its a joke. I think whats worse is i still participate in these threads every year lol :)
 
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LordVic said:
...
this is why investors are spooked about the increased prices and the lack of volume reporting. there's a holistic picture here, and impact against iphone sales has further reaching affects outside of just the iPhone category.
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Does this comment include the Warren Buffet AAPL holdings?
 
C5Longhorn said:
The Nexus and Pixel phones receive 3 years of updates and support. They sometimes get longer support than that.
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From point of first production. Big ***** deal. So if you buy it at 11 months, you get 2 years. oooh...

Spoken from someone screwed for a Nexus 7 2013 purchase in 2014 where Google just dropped it 1 year after I got it. Never again will i trust Android...
 
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