Apple Shipped an Estimated 36.4 Million iPhones Worldwide in Q1 2019, a 30% Year-Over-Year Decline

[FFR]

We are talking about what expensive means. Market doesn't really come in to it.
A top of the range phone is by definition expensive.

No we were talking about premium smartphones.

Market dictates price. Market always dictates prices not you dilbert99.

Top of the range is by definition top of the range, price is then set and the market either accepts said price or self corrects.

Everything else is just your nonsense.

 

[GuruZac]

I keep reading through the comments and seeing the same assumptions on Apple’s diminished sales. There is a continued ignoring of the reality of what optimized software/hardware has done to iPhone, the fact that a cheap battery replacement came out last year that ran all the way to end of 2018, and the fact that Apple is mainly down in China for known reasons. Huawei and Samsung are increasing market share for devices less than $400. Apple hardly competes in that market. I’m not saying the cost of their phones hasn’t play a role but it is not strictly due to lack of innovation and cost. Not even close.

 

[smulji]

I keep reading through the comments and seeing the same assumptions on Apple’s diminished sales. There is a continued ignoring of the reality of what optimized software/hardware has done to iPhone, the fact that a cheap battery replacement came out last year that ran all the way to end of 2018, and the fact that Apple is mainly down in China for known reasons. Huawei and Samsung are increasing market share for devices less than $400. Apple hardly competes in that market. I’m not saying the cost of their phones hasn’t play a role but it is not strictly due to lack of innovation and cost. Not even close.

With respect to China, the iPhone is less differentiated due to WeChat being by far the biggest reason people use smartphones. This is what Ben Thompson, a well-know tech analyst, has to say about China & iPhone

"Available evidence strongly suggests that iPhone demand in China is very elastic: if the iPhone is cheaper, Apple sells more; if it is more expensive, Apple sells less. This is, of course, unsurprising, at least for a commodity, and right there is Apple’s issue in China: the iPhone is simply less differentiated in China than it is elsewhere, leaving it more sensitive to factors like new designs and price than it is elsewhere..."

https://stratechery.com/2019/apples-earnings-googles-earnings-amazon-earnings/

 

[OlliFlamme]

No we were talking about premium smartphones.

Market dictates price. Market always dictates prices not you dilbert99.

Top of the range is by definition top of the range, price is then set and the market either accepts said price or self corrects.

Everything else is just your nonsense.

And what if top of the range is a questionable factor...? I mean on a market-wide level? You name the self correcting. To me it seems there is a correction happening or lurking, but that’s just me...

 

[Emanolo78]

Apple shipped an estimated 36.4 million iPhones worldwide during the first calendar quarter of 2019, which corresponds to Apple's second fiscal quarter, according to new estimates shared today by IDC.

Apple's worldwide smartphone shipments were down 30.2 percent from 52.2 million iPhones shipped in the first quarter of 2018. The decline in sales led to Apple losing the number two worldwide smartphone vendor spot to Huawei. In Q1 2019, Huawei shipped an estimated 59.1 million smartphones.

While Apple was the number three worldwide smartphone vendor and Huawei took the second place spot, Samsung continues to dominate the market with an estimated 71.9 million smartphones shipped during the quarter for 23.1 percent market share.

Apple, meanwhile, had 11.7 percent market share, down from 15.7 percent in the year-ago quarter, while Huawei held 19 percent market share during the quarter. Xiaomi, Vivo, and Oppo trailed after Samsung, Huawei, and Apple.

Apple was the number two smartphone vendor in Q4 2018 due to stronger holiday quarter sales, but fell behind this quarter. Huawei saw significant growth in China according to earlier numbers from Canalys, a market where Apple is struggling.Overall smartphone shipment estimates totaled 310.8 million units in the first quarter of 2019, marking the sixth consecutive quarter of decline. Apple no longer provides a breakdown of unit sales of the iPhone, iPad, and Mac, leaving estimates as the only way to get a glimpse of how Apple product sales are faring.

Update: Canalys also released its worldwide iPhone shipment estimates for Q1 2019, presenting a slightly better picture for iPhone sales. Canalys believes Apple shipped 40.2 million iPhones during the quarter, down from 52.2 million in the year-ago quarter.

That marks a decline of 23.2 percent and gives Apple 12.8 percent market share. It still ranks Apple as the number three worldwide vendor, coming in below Samsung and Huawei.

Article Link: Apple Shipped an Estimated 36.4 Million iPhones Worldwide in Q1 2019, a 30% Year-Over-Year Decline

I do not understand Apple's strategy: if they focus on maximizing service and content revenue, which is based on proprietary hardware, a strategy based on expensive hardware like theirs does not seem to make sense to me. High HW costs decrease sales volume and thus service revenues on the long run. They should have lower cost hardware to maximize the installed base and make the margin on services.
Apple's hardware is outrageously overexpensive accross the whole product spectrum. I am a 30 years Apple fan and am getting out of Apple's ecosystem:
-I used to have a 10 years old Mac Pro, I replaced it with a 32 cores Linux PC for €3700
-My 5 years old Mac Book Pro (which cost €2300) has as much hard disk drive and memory as a MBP costing €4000 today. I'll replace it with a PC. You get great hardware for €2000.

Apple should beware. One cannot take one's customers for idiots too long.

 

[OlliFlamme]

I do not understand Apple's strategy: if they focus on maximizing service and content revenue, which is based on proprietary hardware, a strategy based on expensive hardware like theirs does not seem to make sense to me. High HW costs decrease sales volume and thus service revenues on the long run. They should have lower cost hardware to maximize the installed base and make the margin on services.
Apple's hardware is outrageously overexpensive accross the whole product spectrum. I am a 30 years Apple fan and am getting out of Apple's ecosystem:
-I used to have a 10 years old Mac Pro, I replaced it with a 32 cores Linux PC for €3700
-My 5 years old Mac Book Pro (which cost €2300) has as much hard disk drive and memory as a MBP costing €4000 today. I'll replace it with a PC. You get great hardware for €2000.

Apple should beware. One cannot take one's customers for idiots too long.

I’ve been an Apple idiot since the G3 (ios 9.2 I guess it was at the time). I changed from Nokia to Iphone when the 4 was out, have had three ipads, 4 macbook pro’s or so, have Apple TV’s, wifi over Airport, and have been early adopting most mobiles. Nowadays I am surprised that I consider giving them my finger. Loyalty cannot be taken for granted, but needs to be earned continuously. In hindsight, I am wondering where my status as a life long Apple nerd is. We talk about nowadays over pricing getting idiotic proportions, but let’s not forget how much we already invested in Apple, after buying above average priced stuff with below average specs.

I don’t accept that shareholders are more important than me, the user. We’re talking respectively about the winners and the loser.

Your post as well as one other above, inspire me to consider my thoughts as valid and sensible.

After the years, indeed I got used to the seamlessness of the eco system, but lately I am not feeling like I really depend on that. One gets used to a lot of the cross-device smoothness, okay, but i am more and more re -evaluating functions and their relative advantages. The questionability of the added value is taking over slowly but surely. Need versus fun to have are battling with Apple’s strategy these years, and I seemingly grow wiser in another way than Tim Cook.

To some extent I am extremely disappointed with the whole experience. The idea would be that we go and empty our pockets trough buying services, but boy... that strategy could backfire.

The weather might be fine now, all fine. I am not gonna predict the weather, but I have a hunch, and I am far from alone.

 

[DNichter]

I do not understand Apple's strategy: if they focus on maximizing service and content revenue, which is based on proprietary hardware, a strategy based on expensive hardware like theirs does not seem to make sense to me. High HW costs decrease sales volume and thus service revenues on the long run. They should have lower cost hardware to maximize the installed base and make the margin on services.
Apple's hardware is outrageously overexpensive accross the whole product spectrum. I am a 30 years Apple fan and am getting out of Apple's ecosystem:
-I used to have a 10 years old Mac Pro, I replaced it with a 32 cores Linux PC for €3700
-My 5 years old Mac Book Pro (which cost €2300) has as much hard disk drive and memory as a MBP costing €4000 today. I'll replace it with a PC. You get great hardware for €2000.

Apple should beware. One cannot take one's customers for idiots too long.

Their services will run on the majority of their iOS devices though, with a user base of over a billion people. Their top end phones are expensive, but they last and people are holding onto the products longer, while adding to services revenue. From there, they offer phones in the $500-$800 range while also taking advantage of the resale market, which is huge. Judging by their results, they know what they are doing. A lot better than you or I. Looking at the purchasing decisions you described, you aren't even close to a focus for Apple. Their customers are into mobile, wearables, and services - that's where they should be focusing.

 

[Zdigital2015]

People didn't take into consideration how much the phone costs when it was subsidized by the phone co's years ago and even then it was $700 tops. $1,000 is just too much for a phone, especially when a better model is coming out in the next year. Apple needs to make better products at affordable prices and that includes desktops. They could win the OS war is they just came out with a nice affordable under $500 desktop that everybody could afford.

The desktop wars were won by Microsoft over 20 years ago, 1995 to be exact...Apple moved on from that battle the second Steve Jobs came back to Apple and took over from Gil Amelio. The iPod, iPhone and iPad are all much more successful product than the Mac ever was and Microsoft has nothing in those three spaces. The Zune died on the vine, Windows Phone was actually pretty good, but MS had no clue what to do with it under Ballmer and MS crams Windows 10 into a 2-In-1 to try and compete with the iPad.

Trying to market and sell a $500 Mac and make a profit is sheer lunacy in a declining PC market against the like of Dell, HP and Lenovo. Windows won the desktop, we lost...time to move on.

Updated models come out every year in the automotive market. Whereas Honda used to have a DX, LX and EX trim level for the Accord, they now have the LX, Hybrid, Sport, EX, EX-L and Touring each more expensive depending on the level of equipment. Apple is following a fairly common product strategy. While the SE is closer to the Fit and the 7 and 8 are the Civic, the XR, XS and XS Max are analogous to the Accord. Prices go up as raw materials price climb every year and Apple tries to innovate in a mature smartphone market, which is pretty much a non-starter.

Clearly, as others have elegantly stated, Apple is even figuring out how to move past the iPhone as Wearables and Services are the next areas of growth. I have less confidence in Apple’s Services success as they stink at a lot of it compared to other players in the space. Wearables, however, absolutely NO ONE can match the Apple Watch at this point. Android Wear is almost universally crap and Google will ignore it as it does other “high profile” entries into the marketplace, eventually ceding the market to Apple while Samsung, LG and others may simply fade away. Who knows if FitBit will still be in business next year and Garmin has seemingly carved out a niche of their own.

 

[kaneda]

Well fortunately Mac revenue is stronger now than it was in the iPod days.


Yeah, Blackberry dominated the smartphone market. When you're big you will fall faster.

 

[ondert]

I was happy to see Apple's falling numbers for iPhone hoping that it will made them understand their mistakes in the last 3 years and eventually focus on doing properly working devices. However, after the March event, the worst keynote ever, I understood that it won't be happening until Tim Cook goes away.

 

[GuruZac]

Sorry but Blackberry was no where near Apple in terms of value, revenue, product, and services. Bad analogy.

 

[I7guy]

I was happy to see Apple's falling numbers for iPhone hoping that it will made them understand their mistakes in the last 3 years and eventually focus on doing properly working devices. However, after the March event, the worst keynote ever, I understood that it won't be happening until Tim Cook goes away.

What did you think about the 11B in profit? We’re you just as happy?

It should be understood Tim Cook isn’t leaving, on his own, anytime soon.

 

[GuruZac]

What did you think about the 11B in profit? We’re you just as happy?

It should be understood Tim Cook isn’t leaving, on his own, anytime soon.

Yeah personally speaking, when I start to get pessimistic about Tim Cook, I realize a lot of the products that have come out since he’s been at the helm I have thoroughly enjoyed. My iPad Pro, my Apple Watch, especially the Series 2, my iPhones from the 5S on up, my MacBook Pros, and Apple TV. I’m very much still a big Apple fan and don’t understand the “Apple isn’t innovating” accusations.

 

[CWallace]

So IDC's claim of a 30% drop in shipments do not align with Apple's reported iPhone revenue unless people were mostly buying the most expensive iPhones (which they were not, as ASPs would have had to be almost $100 higher than reported).

https://appleinsider.com/articles/1...ighly-inaccurate-to-the-point-of-embarrassing

 

[Zdigital2015]

I keep reading through the comments and seeing the same assumptions on Apple’s diminished sales. There is a continued ignoring of the reality of what optimized software/hardware has done to iPhone, the fact that a cheap battery replacement came out last year that ran all the way to end of 2018, and the fact that Apple is mainly down in China for known reasons. Huawei and Samsung are increasing market share for devices less than $400. Apple hardly competes in that market. I’m not saying the cost of their phones hasn’t play a role but it is not strictly due to lack of innovation and cost. Not even close.

I agree 100%. My wife and I both had the batteries in our iPhone 6s Plus' replaced last year and had every intention of keeping them for at least one additional year, possibly two. These were both purchased at launch in October of 2015, which means that had we kept them until October of 2020, we would have gotten 5 years out of them. We ended up switching carriers after a horrendous billing dispute that they created by not advising me to switch plans the day after my current billing month ended, which led us to our current carrier who had a promotion going for the iPhone XR. We traded in one 6s Plus and an iPhone 5c that was gathering dust, gave the other 6s Plus to a family member who we added to our plan and we are quite happy.

My point being that it wasn't the release of the XR that got us to upgrade as there just isn't that much new technology in any smartphone. Face ID works pretty well, and has it advantages and disadvantages over Touch ID, the screens are much brighter and larger in slightly smaller bodies, which is nice and is one of the reasons I skipped the XS Max (its huge). Also, the price for the XS and XS Max were higher than what I wanted to pay as I do not have the same infatuation with OLED that others on these forums have, so the extra cash for OLED was not something I was willing to spend...the twin lense camera is another matter, but what can you do? The largest size (512GB) is nice, but I am quite happy with 128GB. 64GB feels too small, even if it really isn't, and $50 more for 128GB XR was a no-brainer versus the additional $150 to go to from 64GB to 256GB. I also like the different colors even if I chickened out and got black instead of yellow.

The bottom line is that after going from the iPhone 4, to the 5, to the 6, giving the 6 to my son the next year to get the 6s Plus (3D Touch is the BOMB, oh, wait, I NEVER used it), I would have been perfectly happy with the 6s Plus for at least another 12 to 24 months before I felt I would need or want to upgrade. I cannot understand the mentality that thinks the XS and XS Max are really boring since so little change since the X. What did people expect, what DO they expect? Everyone around here yip yaps that Apple doesn’t innovate anymore, but almost all of those people have no clue what innovation actually is, they just want a conversation piece because they get bored easily.

Or they think innovation is a sub-$500 mini tower to run macOS, because Windows sucks and they want a Mac cheap cheap cheap, but it better be as reliable as Apple’s $2000 iMac. Or a iPhone SE that can do all the stuff the X can do, but costs $400. They want the value Apple adds to the ecosystem, but expect it for free and get pissy when they don’t get it. They’re delusional...
[doublepost=1556828555][/doublepost]

We are talking about what expensive means. Market doesn't really come in to it.
A top of the range phone is by definition expensive.

What is expensive to one is not necessarily expensive to another...to some $200 is expensive for a phone, to others, $1200 is not really very expensive at all. The market does come into it at all levels. If the market can bear the cost, it does, if not, consumer stop spending and the market dries up because there is no profit to be made at the higher price. Apparently there are many who still see value in what Apple is selling or sales would be non-existent, correct?

 

[Emanolo78]

Their services will run on the majority of their iOS devices though, with a user base of over a billion people. Their top end phones are expensive, but they last and people are holding onto the products longer, while adding to services revenue. From there, they offer phones in the $500-$800 range while also taking advantage of the resale market, which is huge. Judging by their results, they know what they are doing. A lot better than you or I. Looking at the purchasing decisions you described, you aren't even close to a focus for Apple. Their customers are into mobile, wearables, and services - that's where they should be focusing.

I agree that I am probably not in their focus. Yet, I observe myself leaving their ecosystem little by little: I used to have an iPhone, I have an Android now. I switched the mac to a desktop PC, etc... My personal case does not matter. The question is how many people do the same ? Quite a few around me say they hate Apple, because it's overpriced and they feel ripped off. How long can it go ?

 

[I7guy]

I agree that I am probably not in their focus. Yet, I observe myself leaving their ecosystem little by little: I used to have an iPhone, I have an Android now. I switched the mac to a desktop PC, etc... My personal case does not matter. The question is how many people do the same ? Quite a few around me say they hate Apple, because it's overpriced and they feel ripped off. How long can it go ?

We are little by little getting more entrenched in the ecosystem. We bought an xr and max this year. Our family has a number of iPads MacBooks and Apple TV. We love the simplicity of the Apple ecosystem. We will probably not buy any phones, but we have Apple Music subscriptions, extra iCloud storage, etc. our Apple devices “usually” last a long time. My iPad 2 I already got my money’s worth twice over. YMMV. How many are like our family? Churn is inevitable.

 

[GuruZac]

I agree 100%. My wife and I both had the batteries in our iPhone 6s Plus' replaced last year and had every intention of keeping them for at least one additional year, possibly two. These were both purchased at launch in October of 2015, which means that had we kept them until October of 2020, we would have gotten 5 years out of them. We ended up switching carriers after a horrendous billing dispute that they created by not advising me to switch plans the day after my current billing month ended, which led us to our current carrier who had a promotion going for the iPhone XR. We traded in one 6s Plus and an iPhone 5c that was gathering dust, gave the other 6s Plus to a family member who we added to our plan and we are quite happy.

My point being that it wasn't the release of the XR that got us to upgrade as there just isn't that much new technology in any smartphone. Face ID works pretty well, and has it advantages and disadvantages over Touch ID, the screens are much brighter and larger in slightly smaller bodies, which is nice and is one of the reasons I skipped the XS Max (its huge). Also, the price for the XS and XS Max were higher than what I wanted to pay as I do not have the same infatuation with OLED that others on these forums have, so the extra cash for OLED was not something I was willing to spend...the twin lense camera is another matter, but what can you do? The largest size (512GB) is nice, but I am quite happy with 128GB. 64GB feels too small, even if it really isn't, and $50 more for 128GB XR was a no-brainer versus the additional $150 to go to from 64GB to 256GB. I also like the different colors even if I chickened out and got black instead of yellow.

The bottom line is that after going from the iPhone 4, to the 5, to the 6, giving the 6 to my son the next year to get the 6s Plus (3D Touch is the BOMB, oh, wait, I NEVER used it), I would have been perfectly happy with the 6s Plus for at least another 12 to 24 months before I felt I would need or want to upgrade. I cannot understand the mentality that thinks the XS and XS Max are really boring since so little change since the X. What did people expect, what DO they expect? Everyone around here yip yaps that Apple doesn’t innovate anymore, but almost all of those people have no clue what innovation actually is, they just want a conversation piece because they get bored easily.

Or they think innovation is a sub-$500 mini tower to run macOS, because Windows sucks and they want a Mac cheap cheap cheap, but it better be as reliable as Apple’s $2000 iMac. Or a iPhone SE that can do all the stuff the X can do, but costs $400. They want the value Apple adds to the ecosystem, but expect it for free and get pissy when they don’t get it. They’re delusional...
[doublepost=1556828555][/doublepost]

What is expensive to one is not necessarily expensive to another...to some $200 is expensive for a phone, to others, $1200 is not really very expensive at all. The market does come into it at all levels. If the market can bear the cost, it does, if not, consumer stop spending and the market dries up because there is no profit to be made at the higher price. Apparently there are many who still see value in what Apple is selling or sales would be non-existent, correct?

Great post, thanks for sharing.

 

[DNichter]

I agree that I am probably not in their focus. Yet, I observe myself leaving their ecosystem little by little: I used to have an iPhone, I have an Android now. I switched the mac to a desktop PC, etc... My personal case does not matter. The question is how many people do the same ? Quite a few around me say they hate Apple, because it's overpriced and they feel ripped off. How long can it go ?

I’m sure there are plenty, but it doesn’t ultimately matter. Apple offers price points on iPad and iPhone from $329 to $1,099. If you feel it’s too expensive, then there probably isn’t much else Apple can do. I don’t fault them for having different options at different price points for different people and needs. Apple is more so focused on the customers that see value in what they bring, the best overall combination of performance, security, privacy, ecosystem, apps, and support. If a customer doesn’t value that, no big deal, there’s a ton of new and existing customers out there who do. Pick what works best for you, Apple will survive.

 

[StyxMaker]

Apple needs to get their **** together.
While for me there was a lot of incentive to upgrade from a 6S Plus to the XS Max, for folks with an 8+ or X there was a lot less incentive.
Add to that the government controlled/subsidized China market, AND the high prices of the XS line what does Apple expect?

That’s normal, there is never as much incentive for a person with a one year old phone to upgrade as there is for a person with a three or four year old pone.

 

[Steve686]

For a smartphone the camera is excellent and there is nothing wrong with Apple touting the greatness. Your expectations were out of line with the technology as you are comparing $2,000 in specialized camera equipment with a smartphone sensor. Of course the smartphone will lose.

View the attachment.

That’s not excellent by any standard.

I wasn’t expecting anything near my D750, but again, I expected some decent shots in stadium lighting which isn’t the very low lighting that Apple blazoned on screen at the phone’s announcement. The Camera just didn’t deliver. That’s all.

I’ve had IPhone since day 1 and love them. The pics for daytime bright light shooting are great. But get into low light levels and the sensor really starts to fall apart depending on subject.
[doublepost=1556864799][/doublepost]

View attachment 834865
I think it depends on the kind of shot. I took this with my XR the other day and I was pretty happy with how it turned out. Especially for software driven bokeh effect. Smartphones really fall apart if you want to zoom in on the photo. Bur nonetheless, they are pretty amazing point and shoot cameras.

Of course.

I had stadium lighting which is going to be a challenge for any digital sensor. Outdoor daytime sunlight really does showcase the sensor’s positives.

 

[Emanolo78]

We are little by little getting more entrenched in the ecosystem. We bought an xr and max this year. Our family has a number of iPads MacBooks and Apple TV. We love the simplicity of the Apple ecosystem. We will probably not buy any phones, but we have Apple Music subscriptions, extra iCloud storage, etc. our Apple devices “usually” last a long time. My iPad 2 I already got my money’s worth twice over. YMMV. How many are like our family? Churn is inevitable.

Sure, my personal case is just one out of a billion. Both of us make two data points from a very large set. Please don't get my wrong: I don't say it is good or bad to buy Apple (I still have some of their devices which are great). My only question is if so many people will enter Apple's eco-system if the products are too expensive, and how many will leave. Nokia and Blackberry used to be kings of the phone market. They dropped like stones with the release of the iPhone. Apple is not immune to such a fate.

Here are a few arguments:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/apple-committing-suicide-its-pricing-strategy-emmanuel-daugeras/

 

[dilbert99]

What is expensive to one is not necessarily expensive to another...to some $200 is expensive for a phone, to others, $1200 is not really very expensive at all. The market does come into it at all levels. If the market can bear the cost, it does, if not, consumer stop spending and the market dries up because there is no profit to be made at the higher price. Apparently there are many who still see value in what Apple is selling or sales would be non-existent, correct?

So you are arguing that iPhones are not expensive?

The market comes in to it to some extent in that all premium phones are expensive.

Expensive items do not need to be scarce, it is a relative thing too.

A pint of milk costing a $1 may be cheap but one costing $5 is expensive.

Look up the dictionary term and argue against any of those meanings
[doublepost=1556872650][/doublepost]

No we were talking about premium smartphones.

Market dictates price. Market always dictates prices not you dilbert99.

Top of the range is by definition top of the range, price is then set and the market either accepts said price or self corrects.

Everything else is just your nonsense.

Settle petal...
I think you are conflating the meaning of expensive. Look it up and argue on those definitions.

All premium smart phones are expensive by definition.

Market dictates price, no argument there, was never arguing that point, but that has nothing to do with in with the slant you are applying.

Keeping big houses is expensive.
A litre of fuel at $1 may be cheap but at $6 it is expensive.
Expensive is really about a comparison between similar items so to speak.
An expensive item will cost more than a cheaper item.

 

[I7guy]

View the attachment.

That’s not excellent by any standard.

I wasn’t expecting anything near my D750, but again, I expected some decent shots in stadium lighting which isn’t the very low lighting that Apple blazoned on screen at the phone’s announcement. The Camera just didn’t deliver. That’s all.

I’ve had IPhone since day 1 and love them. The pics for daytime bright light shooting are great. But get into low light levels and the sensor really starts to fall apart depending on subject.
[doublepost=1556864799][/doublepost]
Of course.

I had stadium lighting which is going to be a challenge for any digital sensor. Outdoor daytime sunlight really does showcase the sensor’s positives.

Yes, I liked the attachment very much and thought the picture came out very well. And unless you pixel peep, it is fine. Sensor is inline with others. You d750 won’t produce perfect pictures in every, single lighting situation. But to the original comment, there is nothing wrong with Apple touting how well the camera on its latest generations perform.
[doublepost=1556880349][/doublepost]

So you are arguing that iPhones are not expensive?

The market comes in to it to some extent in that all premium phones are expensive.

Expensive items do not need to be scarce, it is a relative thing too.

A pint of milk costing a $1 may be cheap but one costing $5 is expensive.

Look up the dictionary term and argue against any of those meanings
[doublepost=1556872650][/doublepost]
Settle petal...
I think you are conflating the meaning of expensive. Look it up and argue on those definitions.

All premium smart phones are expensive by definition.

Market dictates price, no argument there, was never arguing that point, but that has nothing to do with in with the slant you are applying.

Keeping big houses is expensive.
A litre of fuel at $1 may be cheap but at $6 it is expensive.
Expensive is really about a comparison between similar items so to speak.
An expensive item will cost more than a cheaper item.

iPhones went from over-priced to expensive. Maybe, but IMO the expense of iPhones is worth it to me.

 

[LordVic]

I keep reading through the comments and seeing the same assumptions on Apple’s diminished sales. There is a continued ignoring of the reality of what optimized software/hardware has done to iPhone, the fact that a cheap battery replacement came out last year that ran all the way to end of 2018, and the fact that Apple is mainly down in China for known reasons. Huawei and Samsung are increasing market share for devices less than $400. Apple hardly competes in that market. I’m not saying the cost of their phones hasn’t play a role but it is not strictly due to lack of innovation and cost. Not even close.

I'm willing to bet the majority of the decline is price sensitivity, due to the competition who have closed the gap considerably in quality for the price points.

Those $400 devices, which 5 years ago would feel like scrolling through mollasis have started to feel pretty strong and robust. it's hard to convince most users who are price concious to spend $1,000, when they can get "good enough" experience for $400, ro even $800.

The iPhone is still one of the best smart phones on the market. I don't think this is up for debate, BUT in comparison to the rest of the industry, does the iPhone offer sufficient value for enough people to make up for the increased price point? I think we're starting to see the cracks that Apple may have reached a little too far in regards o price sensitivity.
(https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/price-sensitivity.asp)