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The world is changing (has changed) and will continue changing. The effects of COVID will be long felt. Whilst there will still be a good demand for iPhones, the demand for cheaper handsets will always be stronger.

Well, I think Apple has a "Pandemic Tailwind" going on with their other hardware.

iPhone 12 is delayed this year.

If you compare Q4 numbers YOY, you can see that even without iPhone 12 sales this year, Q4 was very strong- basically flat YOY - WITHOUT any iPhone 12 sales. That is incredible actually - give it a few days for Wall Street CNBC guys to clue in (someone needs to tell them what to think usually).

Check in April 2021, maybe Apple will move up a notch. Or maybe you are right - the cheap price handsets always sell more volume, that makes some sense too.

My main point is that COVID is actually helping Apple sales! Strange, but it seems to be true! This also makes sense to me. Work from home and/or treat yourself to something good. We all spend a lot of time on our devices.
 
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Please cue the smartphone profits table for a chuckle...

Apple is hoping to one day sell just 5 smartphones at $1T each. Think of the fiscal efficiencies of that one. And the low environmental footprint!
 
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there we go with the numbers. Just a happy owner of both Apple and Xiaomi devices here hehe
 
What are you even talking about? In case you missed the earnings call, Apple is doing exceptionally well, particularly given the pandemic environment the economy is operating in. The pandemic shook up the world and economy in many ways, and the fact Apple was still able to deliver products consistent with dates from prior years (without a pandemic existing) is a testament to their success.
Of course Apple is doing extremely well. Their profits (40%) are so large partly because their manufacturing partner, Foxconn, is making pennies on the dollar to make the phones and partly because Apple charges so much for their hardware.

Not to mention that three other manufacturers (Xiaomi, Huawei, and Samsung) did better than Apple and as far as I know, they are part of the same pandemic.
 
My $0.02, what I believe will sell well this Holiday season:

1.) iPhone 12 mini @ $699 USD

2.) Wi-Fi ONLY iPad Air 4 @ $599 USD

3.) iPhone 11 @ $599 USD

4.) iPhone 12 Pro @ $999 USD

5.) iPhone 12 Pro Max @ $1,099 USD

6.) iPhone 12 @ $799 USD
 
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They deserve it. The long delays in the shipping of multiple Apple products are inadmissible. And this is not due to the pandemic, this happens every single year to a greater or lesser extent. Not professional at all and unexpected coming from one of the biggest and richest companies in the world. Shame on Apple!
i wouldn't take it that way at all. the previous iphones are damn good iphones and there just isn't a compelling reason to upgrade.
 
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As Apple refuses more and more to listen to their users this is going to keep happening.

Contrary to what someone looking around these forums for the first time might think, it is highly unlikely that the notch, bezels, or amount of RAM impact the sales of iPhones in any meaningful way.

For every tech geek that can even understand your list of suggestions, there are probably many more "average consumers" that couldn't care less. In other words, your list has absolutely no correlation to Apple's YoY sales variances.
 
Can’t say I’m surprised to be honest. I understand the situation in the US is completely different and Apple has a gigantic market share, while in China is the polar opposite and due to the recent tensions will be worse and worse in the future. I’m in Europe and I can speak from my personal PoV, which is somewhat balanced between the extreme US adoption rates and China: people are buying chinese phones more and more, especially Xiaomi since Huawei has no Google services. The main, and I would say only reason, is price/performance ratio. With the current economical crisis not that many people have the money/want to change their top end 1k+€ phone every year or two. Especially since there are so many options that are much cheaper and do just about anything you’d need from a phone quite well. People buy these chinese phones for 2-300€ and then just throw them away when they don’t work well anymore, buying the new upgraded model. In my opinion Apple lacks badly a low end phone that can compete both in price and hardware with these chinese brands, I think they are moving towards that direction with the iphone SE but it’s still not enough. It’s still too pricey and doesn’t have the specs of some lower priced phones from the competition. Also you can find chinese/samsung phones heavily discounted on third party resellers and tech stores, while with Apple the discounts are always much more limited. I like Apple products but I’m not that much of an Apple fan that I’d buy a iphone 11 pro max for 880€ while I could buy a Galaxy S20 FE for 630€, for example. Especially in times like these, people try to save money where they can, can’t blame them to be honest, I try to do the same. But the main thing is that they should just lower the price of the lower end phones and/or make them more attractive somehow, this is what most people want to buy these days.
 
Contrary to what someone looking around these forums for the first time might think, it is highly unlikely that the notch, bezels, or amount of RAM impact the sales of iPhones in any meaningful way.

For every tech geek that can even understand your list of suggestions, there are probably many more "average consumers" that couldn't care less. In other words, your list has absolutely no correlation to Apple's YoY sales variances.

Take this with grain of salt. But had a few people that “couldn’t care less” upgrading their iPhone 6s which were on last leg. We’re at Best Buy. All they can do is stare at Samsung and other phone mesmerized by their full screens. No notches.

Why can’t we get this one they ask. Because I’m not helping you with these is my answer. Look just get one of these iPhones. Make my life easier. And so they did. Didn’t look too happy. But that’s the state of Apple with smartphones. Even the 12s look pretty outdated compared with others. They left with two iPhone se 2 or whatever they’re called which looks 10 years ago (or just like what they’ve owned for years) but at least have decent specs.
 
I very rarely spot people with the newest iPhones now a days. I’m keeping my launch day X as long as I possibly can.

Other than sending emails, texts and checking my banking app I don’t really use the phone like a smart phone anymore. So all the new bells and whistles sail over my head.
 
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They deserve it. The long delays in the shipping of multiple Apple products are inadmissible. And this is not due to the pandemic, this happens every single year to a greater or lesser extent. Not professional at all and unexpected coming from one of the biggest and richest companies in the world. Shame on Apple!
Is there anyone here who actually thinks that this will change anything? People are not going to start switching to android just because their favourite iphone is delayed by a few weeks. They will simply wait it out. This just means potential for a record earnings over the next two quarters as supply eventually catches up with demand.

Apple forever!
 
Is there anyone here who actually thinks that this will change anything? People are not going to start switching to android just because their favourite iphone is delayed by a few weeks. They will simply wait it out. This just means potential for a record earnings over the next two quarters as supply eventually catches up with demand.

Exactly!

No one is saying... "oh man... the new iPhone is delayed... I better get one of these $200 Xiaomi phones instead..."

:p
 
They deserve it. The long delays in the shipping of multiple Apple products are inadmissible. And this is not due to the pandemic, this happens every single year to a greater or lesser extent. Not professional at all and unexpected coming from one of the biggest and richest companies in the world. Shame on Apple!
Long delays? Gosh, it's 1 month only...
 
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Iphone will remain an overpriced luxury gadget to some, but in the long run China and South Korea will be the only ones left in the game. Apple will go the way of pounds and gallons, becoming a purely national thing.
 
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Samsung has 22% market share, out of which 20% is probably low-end devices with 3-4 years old hardware inside.

Yep. Samsung's best-selling models are their cheaper A-series phones in the few-hundred-dollar range... NOT their $800-$1200 Galaxy S and Note series.

And it's been like that for a while. Same for the other manufacturers too.

So for Apple to be the #4 smartphone vendor by volume... and the iPhone's average selling price is around $700... it's very impressive.

But this has all been said before... every three months for over a decade. :p
 
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