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Apple Reportedly Reassigned Some Marketing Staff to Work on Bolstering Sales of iPhone XS and iPhone XR

HJM.NL said:
When they hire you, you should also hire me... I promise to do the following things:

  1. Make Apple a private company (no push from shareholders to earn more each quarter)
  2. Let Tim be a logistic manager
  3. Hire a great visionary with passion for technology
  4. Hire good designers who understand the need of design and power without sacrifice
  5. Say thank you and goodbye to Johnny Ive
  6. MacOS on ipads with touch and pencil
  7. Hire enough persons to make Siri listen properly and do more than one command at a time
  8. Focus more on marketshare to stay relevant than on profits
  9. Streamline the whole soft- and hardware
  10. Put more profits into R&D for a better future and future products
  11. Make the Mac a thrust worthy platform again as a good alternative to Windows
  12. Hire people that investigate what customers want and are missing
  13. Make Apple the brand for the rest of us
  14. Give a meaning to ‘think different’ again
  15. ...
I could probably make it to 1000 :D
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You don't seem to need 3. on your list. You are obviously that visionary with a passion for technology. If only the rest of us were able to envision and write such genius lists. You made Steve smile from heaven.
 
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-Garry- said:
I think the word “overpriced” might be being overused. Apple obviously spends a huge amount on R&D and the components/assembly of the devices. There are also the marketing and logistics costs, plus a healthy profit margin.

The problem is that, if £999 (or the US equivalent) is the lowest price Apple are able to sell the XS for, it’s simply more than many consumers are willing or able to pay. There are many, many other handsets out there that will do 95% of what an iPhone can do for a fraction of the cost. Sure, they may not have the best screens, the best build quality or some of the other cutting edge tech, but in terms of utility they will do almost as much.

I can certainly imagine some consumers spending £700-£800 on an iPhone with hesitancy, but there has to be a tipping point where those same consumers say, “Sod it, I’ll just get that cheap Android instead. It’s almost as good.” And I wonder if we’re now at that tipping point.
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It's overpriced because Apple's profit margin is around 36%. A typical margin for a FTSE 100 company would be 7%. If an energy company here made 36% while raising its prices it would get burned to the ground.
 
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pika2000 said:
Apple's solution is the iPhone Upgrade Program, which makes sense.
Problem is, that program is not worldwide. Apple really needs to work on that. I would be in the program in a heartbeat if it was offered in my region.
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A lot of Apple's programs, services and products are not available worldwide. So some prices are unexplicable for half-baked return
 
Interesting phenomenon, when everyone is speaking bad about iPhone, it is selling like pancakes. When everyone is praising iPhone, nobody is buying it. :)

People praised the XR so much here. And look how it is doing.

Last year, almost no one had anything good to say about the X on launch. "The notch, the price, the home button...bla, blah...", and it is one of the best selling iPhones ever.
 
I don't know about these current prices for Smartphones. $1,449.00 for 512GB XS Max. Previous MacBook Air at 512 GB is $1,399.00. I have plenty of money to buy these things whenever I want, but to me its seems silly that a phone cost more than a laptop. Call me frugal I guess, but hey it's you money. Just make sure you can really afford these things and pay for stuff when it breaks.
 
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Rob_2811 said:
What has that got to do with Apple "doing whatever part it needs to for humanity." ?

If Cook wants to do something for humanity why doesn't he speak out about the human rights abuses going on in China instead of popping over there to schmooze?
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I believe he did speak out about the human rights abuses there and worked with Foxconn to mitigate these issues. But you know what, it doesn't matter what Tim did or didn't do. If you don't like the company the way it is, it's real easy to pick some (any) criticism out of the air, whether it's really true or deserved. (Just to be clear, apple is not perfect and some of the things it did deserves to be criticized, but a sniping point like the human rights abuses in China is a red-herring to this conversation. Apple has a program in place https://www.apple.com/supplier-responsibility/ and that doesn't mean 100% compliance. And maybe since you want to hold apple accountable you ought to eat your dog-food and hold yourself accountable and not buy any products made in China. Good luck with that.)
 
Falhófnir said:
On bill of materials/ manufacture alone, perhaps, but by the time you add in R&D and shipping and marketing etc to be repaid, it's certainly not.
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No but then Apple aren't the only company on the planet that have these overheads and plenty don't take 60 + % margins.

Worth bearing in mind that that margin on the iPhone X m models is SKU dependent. The margin is significantly higher on the upgraded storage tiers.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeanba...make-nearly-a-200-profit-margin/#7e53e2834966
 
I feel genuinely sorry for fanbois amd fangurls, whether apple android or windows. Can't imagine going through life tied to any one product with such deep love and sentiment so as one has to lose sleep or get depressed.
I have 69' chevelle 396 cowl induction w hurst 4sp. I enjoy it, it looks
awesome but when the time comes, it's gone for a better retirement. No love lost.
Car analogies and Apple, got to love it.
 
Rob_2811 said:
No but then Apple aren't the only company on the planet that have these overheads and plenty don't take 60 + % margins.

Worth bearing in mind that that margin on the iPhone X m models is SKU dependent. The margin is significantly higher on the upgraded storage tiers.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeanba...make-nearly-a-200-profit-margin/#7e53e2834966
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So really no one knows how much an iphone costs to manufacture including direct and indirect overhead. That includes go down to your local apple store for free technical support, 5 years of o/s updates, on-line technical support, etc.
 
I7guy said:
So really no one knows how much an iphone costs to manufacture including direct and indirect overhead. That includes go down to your local apple store for free technical support, 5 years of o/s updates, on-line technical support, etc.
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Lots of products have long term support and r&d. Microsoft updates OS and security in computers 9yrs old and older.
 
I7guy said:
I believe he did speak out about the human rights abuses there and worked with Foxconn to mitigate these issues. But you know what, it doesn't matter what Tim did or didn't do. If you don't like the company the way it is, it's real easy to pick some (any) criticism out of the air, whether it's really true or deserved. (Just to be clear, apple is not perfect and some of the things it did deserves to be criticized, but a sniping point like the human rights abuses in China is a red-herring to this conversation. Apple has a program in place https://www.apple.com/supplier-responsibility/ and that doesn't mean 100% compliance. And maybe since you want to hold apple accountable you ought to eat your dog-food and hold yourself accountable and not buy any products made in China. Good luck with that.)
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Im not talking about the conditions at Foxconn I'm talking about the Human rights abuses of the Chinese government.

Tim won't tolerate conspiracy theorists but is happy to appear at conferences promoting Chinas view of a censored Internet :rolleyes:
[doublepost=1543962926][/doublepost]
I7guy said:
So really no one knows how much an iphone costs to manufacture including direct and indirect overhead. That includes go down to your local apple store for free technical support, 5 years of o/s updates, on-line technical support, etc.
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Again, Apple aren't they only company that offer this. It isn't free for everybody else.
 
groadyho said:
Lots of products have long term support and r&d. Microsoft updates OS and security in computers 9yrs old and older.
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Microsofts primary business is not hardware though. And Microsoft is big enough that it can make Intel do what it wants.

Rob_2811 said:
Im not talking about the conditions at Foxconn I'm talking about the Human rights abuses of the Chinese government.

Tim won't tolerate conspiracy theorists but is happy to appear at conferences promoting Chinas view of a censored Internet :rolleyes:
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If you are critical of Cook's handling of "China's view of a censored internet", than you have to look into yourself and see if you should continue your relationship with any product manufactured in China.

I can't fault Tim for that, nobody is going to change it and if you want to do business in China, you have to pick your battles.
[doublepost=1543963348][/doublepost]
Rob_2811 said:
Again, Apple aren't they only company that offer this. It isn't free for everybody else.
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I may have missed it, but which mobile phone vendor offers up all of this support? That's not even the point, the universe, meaning Apples global customers, not the 20 that post on MR will determine Apple's fate. And I'm betting it's increased valuation as opposed to a slow side to zero as some here think.
 
I was listening to the Maccast podcast the other day and the author discussed the rumours of slow down in iPhone sales; he said "it's not time to panic" which I thought was odd - as an Apple customer I'm not panicking, in fact I'm hoping Apple's sales slow significantly so they begin to appreciate that they can't continue to overcharge/screw customers within their eco system in order to support their share price. I appreciate that rate of growth is slowing, so in the absence of any new "killer product" in order to drive growth their only option to maintain share price is to keep increasing prices. Hopefully they are now finding out that the strategy is flawed.

I have always accepted that you pay a premium for Apple gear, but the last round of products made me realise they have gone too far. The idea that Apple are still the warm and fuzzy company of old is fantasy.
 
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LovingTeddy said:
Quite frankly, if anything, Apple decide to not disclose sales number shows that they have no confidence on their new products.
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Since it’s your belief that you think Apple has no confidence in their products, because they don’t report numbers? What about competitors, they don’t report their numbers either, are you saying Google and Samsung don’t have confidence in their products either? I think that is flawed logic on your behalf, because I think Apple is more than confident enough in the products that they release, regardless of these ‘Analyst’ reports.
 
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kingalexthe1st said:
For everyone saying the phones are overpriced - consider this....

The first iPhone (2007) came with 4Gb of storage space and sold for $499. In today's money, that's ~$600. Now, if I were to offer you that, OR for $150 more the iPhone XR with 64Gb storage (plus everything else that's improved), what would you do?
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There are now a lot of alternative products available. Alternative doesn't mean better. Just available is enough. 2007 iPhone was unique
 
I7guy said:
If you are critical of Cook's handling of "China's view of a censored internet", than you have to look into yourself and see if you should continue your relationship with any product manufactured in China.

I can't fault Tim for that, nobody is going to change it and if you want to do business in China, you have to pick your battles.
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Well no, you said Tim Cook made sure Apple did the right thing for humanity, and I pointed out that he's strangely quiet on Chinese human rights abuses.

For Tim clearly profit > everything else. Thats fine but lets not pretend otherwise.
 
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Rob_2811 said:
Well no, you said Tim Cook made sure Apple did the right thing for humanity, and I pointed out that he's strangely quiet on Chinese human rights abuses.

For Tim clearly profit > everything else. Thats fine but lets not pretend otherwise.
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Well yes. Since the words are being parsed this is the exact wording. "Because Tim Cook makes sure Apple is doing whatever part it needs to for humanity."

We can try to believe the profits first, customers second meme. Doesn't matter to me, all I'm giving is a rebuttal.
 
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