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

[Baymowe335]

They're gonna have to lower the prices.

Based on what?

I'll believe it when I see the prices lowered on Apple.com

Until then, this is all speculation. You can't really think there is a story here. There is literally one "unnamed person" that says they put some marketing people on the iPhone. Apple probably has hundreds up people marketing the iPhone.

I doubt this "source" is anyone who would know anything about execution.

 

[pika2000]

Hire me.

“Lower the price”

Done.

Even a crappy MBA grad will know that's the stupidest thing to do.
[doublepost=1543936827][/doublepost]

The report cites an unnamed person familiar with the situation

LOL. So basically somebody said something. Excellent journalism.

 

[omihek]

Phil said in 2013, “Can’t innovate anymore, my ass!”

He was 90% wrong, all we’ve gotten that’s magical are Airpods, mostly everything else is just catchup. Time for Apple to start taking risks.

Really? The iPhone X was just catchup? I don’t remember ever seeing a phone like that before. Which phone was it catching up to?

 

[Kiorr]

Source: 9to5Mac

Found this interesting too. Much more blunt, aggressive taglines. The price increases obviously don't help, but people just don't update their phones as often any more. It's getting harder and harder to sell people something which is only marginally better than what they have.

Haha All-screen design i see a pretty big border on the xr.

 

[motm95]

I think smartphone sales are generally weak across all manufacturers, which leads me to believe it really boils down to an issue of market saturation, pure and simple. There is no need for constant phone upgrades.

 

[pika2000]

I’m still on my X because it’s not worth paying another $1300+ for XS.

If they would keep the prices around $800 I’d upgrade every year like I have been doing.

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.

 

[El Fez]

Apple may announce a new phone in the summer but my current iPhone is at the beginning of its ATT upgrade cycle and I'm sure many other folks are as well.

I'm still enjoying the hell out of my 8s. The original X and the subsequent X models just don't make me want to jump up and spend another grand right now but in a year or two, maybe Apple phones will offer something whiz-bang that interests me.

I AM spending money on Apple products though. I just purchased a top of the line (1-year old) MBP and (discounted refurb) HomePod.

 

[avanpelt]

This is not a problem that more marketing can solve.

Apple made iOS 12 the best iOS release in the last three or four years for people who had devices that were 2+ years old. Sure, they say that every year -- "this is the best version of iOS ever" -- but this year, it really was the best version ever for older devices. Let's keep in mind that the reason Apple focused so heavily on improving how iOS ran on older devices was because they were being lambasted in the press for purposely slowing down older devices so as to cause people to have to upgrade. I don't think Apple purposely did that; I just don't think they gave much thought about how iOS 9, iOS 10, and iOS 11 ran on older hardware. They designed those iOS versions with the new hardware in mind. They designed iOS 12 with older hardware in mind.

Also, Apple allowed the perception to dominate that the iPhone XR is vastly inferior to the XS and XS Max. I lost track of how many mainstream press people were reporting before the XR came out that it was going to be an inferior iPhone compared to the more expensive models. There was a considerable amount of backpedaling once the XR was actually released, but I think most consumers had already made up their minds by then. They certainly weren't going to spend $1,000+ on a phone, and why would they want to spend $750+ on a phone that had already been solidified in their minds as inferior? Meanwhile, their current iPhone was working better than it had in years.

 

[brdeveloper]

Even a crappy MBA grad will know that's the stupidest thing to do.

Perhaps Apple should invest more aggressively on cloud services. Currently iCloud is basically a backup unit. Apple Music can't stream to Chromecast like Spotify and other music apps. Sometimes you need to be more flexible if you want commiting people to your ecosystem.

 

[sw1tcher]

It certainly doesn't help that Apple recently announced that it will no longer disclose iPhone unit sales in its quarterly earnings results, leading some to believe that iPhone sales have peaked and Apple has something to hide.

iPhone sales did peak in fiscal year 2015. In fiscal year 2015, Apple sold 231.22 million units. In fiscal year 2016, it was 211.88 million units. In fiscal year 2017, 216.76 million units. In fiscal year 2018, it was 217.72 million units.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/276306/global-apple-iphone-sales-since-fiscal-year-2007/

Apple's financial chief Luca Maestri said unit sales are "not particularly relevant for our company at this point," as they are "not necessarily representative of the underlying strength of our business." He did note that Apple may provide qualitative commentary if the info is valuable to investors.

They're "not particularly relevant" now since iPhone unit sales are barely growing. But when unit sales were growing in the double digits year over year, Apple was more than happy to provide investors with unit sales numbers and even brag about them.

While there were similar concerns about the iPhone X, that device ultimately sold well.

We don't know that (relative to other models) because Apple doesn't break down sales by individual model.

 

[Andres Cantu]

Really? The iPhone X was just catchup? I don’t remember ever seeing a phone like that before. Which phone was it catching up to?

It was catching up to the minimal bezel trend, not to mention the OLED trend.

 

[Fender2112]

At the end of the day though, what do I know, they obviously had the consumer survey data in front of them and this is obviously what it told them would be the most successful path to take...

They were reading the data upside down.

 

[pika2000]

Perhaps Apple should invest more aggressively on cloud services. Currently iCloud is basically a backup unit. Apple Music can't stream to Chromecast like Spotify and other music apps. Sometimes you need to be more flexible if you want commit people to your ecosystem.

I don't disagree with that. Knowing Apple though, I'm sure they can be a bit picky in making their services available to other platforms/3rd parties. It's a Steve Jobs thing.

 

[elkhound]

Dear Apple,

Why would I want an overpriced fragile phone that doesn’t fit in my pocket and doesn’t have a headphone jack? Keeping my 6s, thank you.

 

[Ont]

iPhone XS max is a great phone. The only thing keeps me from buying it is the price... Lower the price and I will buy one. Note that I don't buy it because it is 1000USD. I can afford that. But look at the value you get. Slow charger, no lighting to Aux cable,.... It is all about the value you get from 1000USD phone.

 

[redmaple]

Then, we get stories like this:

Apple's largest supplier reported 24 percent surge in revenues from OLED display, components sales

 

[sw1tcher]

More proof... Apple should've just lowered the entry prices and this could've been avoided.

It takes courage to raise prices.

 

[anticipate]

I was an absolute Apple fanatic at one point, and I still buy Apple products. I love my Apple Watch, I love my iPhone XS Max. But they are turning into the Canada Goose of tech. Great stuff, but overpriced (yes I have one of them too... so warm). It is starting to become damaging overpricing as they struggle to maintain margins.

They just need to lay off the gas a little pricing wise

 

[CWallace]

The Samsung division that makes OLED panels for smartphones saw a 24% rise in revenues Year on Year for their last quarter and you know that wasn't driven by Galaxy sales.

So maybe everyone is just buying the XS Max?

 

[omihek]

It was catching up to the minimal bezel trend, not to mention the OLED trend.

Again, which phone? You could say the original iPhone was catching up to the “smartphone” trend, but that’s just not a very accurate statement.

 

[Compile 'em all]

This is not a problem that more marketing can solve.


Also, Apple allowed the perception to dominate that the iPhone XR is vastly inferior to the XS and XS Max. I lost track of how many mainstream press people were reporting before the XR came out that it was going to be an inferior iPhone compared to the more expensive models. There was a considerable amount of backpedaling once the XR was actually released, but I think most consumers had already made up their minds by then. They certainly weren't going to spend $1,000+ on a phone, and why would they want to spend $750+ on a phone that had already been solidified in their minds as inferior? Meanwhile, their current iPhone was working better than it had in years.

Finally a post in this thread that hits the nail on the head. This IS indeed the problem. People always associate more money with better, however Apple released a new phone that is very expensive but still doesn't feel premium. Had they never released the XS or the X, the XR would be flying off the shelves. But now, you look at the phone and you are like "ok, so I give you €900 and still don't have the best iPhone you sell?".

The solution really is quite simple, sell ONLY one model like they always did and at a good price. Not outlandishly expensive like the XS but not as cheap as older models. I think Apple thought they would do how they do with the Apple Watch, but this is a vastly different customer base.

 

[brdeveloper]

Dear Apple,

Why would I want an overpriced fragile phone that doesn’t fit in my pocket and doesn’t have a headphone jack? Keeping my 6s, thank you.

The battery gate perhaps has something to do with the decreasing sales. That is, you can get a brand new battery for an affordable price until Dec. 31, keeping you phone "fast as when it was new". Battery lifespan is an important ingredient on the smartphone market.

 

[nt5672]

More lipstick, that'll fix it. No need for pleasant personality, intelligence, good health, etc.

 

[Juan007]

XR is already an incredible deal, it's basically an XS with a cheaper (but still amazing) screen. I wouldn't believe these rumors about sales being down, there have been many such rumors over the years and they have all turned out to be false. Apple rearranges staff for various reasons, don't assume the sky is falling just because someone changes their title on LinkedIn.

 

[Lowhangers]

This is bad news to owners of older models like me (iPhone SE). This puts more pressure on the planned obsolescence.

I own an SE too, but this might work out well for us. It could convince Apple to release another version of the SE, or at least some other smaller phone. I certainly hope so, I tried the XS and XS Max and both are too big and uncomfortable for me to use one-handed. I just detest phones that big.

So keep your fingers crossed man, maybe we’ll get lucky and get a new edge to edge SE! Wouldn’t that be great?