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I'm in no rush for a new iPhone. My 7 has been working perfectly well and I don't want a phone that's ALL glass. With the $29 battery replacement I expect my phone to keep working fine for another 2 years. After the 7, there hasn't been any new features that I "must have". I suspect we're nearing, or have already hit, smartphone peak.

I kept my iPhone 5 until last year(5yrs), when I bought the iPhone 8 plus. I have no intention of replacing this phone for at least 5 years(2022), and only if Apple get rid of that stupid notch. I have a 2014 27" iMac, and have no intention of getting another one until Apple give me what I want. A 30", or 32" iMac with a Pro 34" widescreen model. I also want my 17" laptop again. I bought three of them. I will not buy that toy 15" laptop. Apple's range of software and hardware is very boring, zero true updates. To wait until 2019 for the Mac Pro is as bad joke. There are some great widescreen 4K monitors available now Apple. Apple is so behind the trend, so far behind, so deaf to what customers want, slow, slow product updates, unless you want a watch strap every year, or Fisher Price/Crayola coloured headphones, or yet another phone. Apple only updates the iPhone, every year or two. Why does Apple employ so many people, to produce so little?
 
They just don’t learn, do they?

One underestimates Apple to their own detriment.
Or, or, just bear with me here... they've learned all too well. They've learned to manipulate the market so well that even lay people can tell what time of year it is based on analyst predictions.

Analyst aren't fans. They don't care whether Apple does well or not. They just care if Apple can make them money.
 
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How tragic to spend a full version number mainly on stability and have your sheep followers applauding (that apparently come to accept mediocrisy as The Norm...)
Are you referring to the latest version of Android? Oh wait there event two months ago only featured things Apple did last year, but it was new to them I guess. There a great YouTube video showing off the coolest 100 new or updated features for IOS 12. Many times Apples updates aren’t fresh to the public in recent years because of all the leaks months or sometimes years in advance to them fully developing the tech to make it work on the level they require. Remember the IPad was really initially shelved to do the iPod because the touch screen technology did not exist to realize their vision.
 
Or, or, just bear with me here... they've learned all too well. They've learned to manipulate the market so well that even lay people can tell what time of year it is based on analyst predictions.

Analyst aren't fans. They don't care whether Apple does well or not. They just care if Apple can make them money.

Sadly, I think you are right. I would like to think that after the last round of negative iPhone news was proven to be dead wrong, people would learn to be a little wiser and more skeptical of any news that spreads doom and gloom about Apple, but I guess there’s just something about Apple which draws the haters and the naysayers out of the woodwork.

All I can say is - bring it on (cracks knuckles).
 
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This reminds me of MacOS 10.5 Leopard.

Leopard was a very new feature heavy, but very unstable, RAM hungry, and had a huge footprint. Apple acknowledge the problems with Leopard, and concentrated on stability and user experience, rather than a bunch of new features for Snow Leopard.

I think it was a smart choice, as 10.6 is probably the most stable version of OSX.

Leopard was also the last version of OSX to support both PowerPC and x86. A lot of what made Leopard RAM hungry and have a large footprint was that it essentially had two sets of libraries for everything - one for each architecture. There were apps back then that would strip one or the other from Leopard, that really reduced it's size and RAM dependence. For example, even today, you can find unofficial installs of Leopard that are x86-only or PowerPC-only.

Snow Leopard was the first version of OSX that was x86-only. While Apple did focus on stability and all, a lot of those gains were simply stripping out the legacy PowerPC stuff.
 
The 12 month requirement to upgrade was part of the reason I went with the 8 plus last year instead of waiting for the X. I wanted to be able to get the plus sized X when it launches this year instead of having to either wait 2 months or pay an extra 2 months for a device I won’t be using anymore.

Having the most latest thing “now” or the moment it comes out is never is cheap. You get to pay for that privilege.

It will be interesting to see if Apple decides to leverage the most loyal of their customer base by offering to wave their final 1-2 payment(s) if they preordered the X last October.

From a marketing standpoint alone it's a cheap way to nudge your most loyal customers a bit more to buy your next newest thing. Think of it like this IF someone with an X is interested in upgrading, but finds out they have 2 months of payments left, they may decide to hold onto their X for 2 months until they upgrade. Fine you'll get the sale 2 months from now right - it doesn't matter.

Not exactly. After two months "newness" of the new model has faded, the need to own it first isn't there anymore, and now this person says "yah know what I'll keep my X until next year and upgrade then". So you've lost a sale of an iPhone for ~$100.

That's not it though, it could get even worse for you because next year rolls around and this person now realizes "hey my iPhone X may be 2 years old, but Apple makes really solid products maybe I'll hold onto it for another year and ditch the monthly payment entirely, afterall I didn't miss out on much last year anyway." Now, for $100 you've lost 2 cycles of iPhone sales to your most loyal high end buyer.

It would be interesting to me to see which of these two options is more profitable for the company long term. I'd imagine Apple would see a pretty strong return on the investment of offering to pay the last month or two to ensure that these people upgrade to the newest phone and stay locked into their upgrade cycle, but it really comes down to how many people who want to upgrade would fall into the scenario above.
 
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Calling it now: analysts will again put too much emphasis on some supply chain numbers that don’t directly correlate to how many iPhones will be sold, and Apple will have another record quarter due to an iPhone XS Plus. As usual there will be relentless negativity.

They don't put "emphasis" on the supply chain numbers, nor are the analysts "relentlessly negative." The supply chain is only one of many factors that analysts take into consideration in an effort forecast earnings, which is their job. Supply chain turns out to be a reasonably good marker for future sales. If it wasn't, they would not be researching the supply chain, and investors would disbelieve the research. Neither is the case, and that is true for a reason.
 
I usually wait until the third year to change my iPhone, having gone from 4, to 5s, and then 7. But the Lightning port on my 7 has been wonky for the past half year and I'm really tempted (read:want) to get this year's mid-tier phone to replace it. Anything from $900 up is too expensive for me to spend in a phone.
 
Apple hit the absolute limits of what they could charge for a phone with the X last year. The paid the price for that to some extent. They may also find that people who DID buy the X will be far less inclined to now upgrade every year. I used to but I can't justify that kind of price for something I don't need EVERY year.
I very much doubt that the yearly upgraders made up more than 10% (if that much) of all iPhone sales. If every fifth from that group then decides to switch to two years, that only reduces iPhone sales by 2%.
 
Sadly, I think you are right. I would like to think that after the last round of negative iPhone news was proven to be dead wrong, people would learn to be a little wiser and more skeptical of any news that spreads doom and gloom about Apple, but I guess there’s just something about Apple which draws the haters and the naysayers out of the woodwork.

All I can say is - bring it on (cracks knuckles).
The problem is you're trying to apply "fan logic" to capitalism. It doesn't work. You care about Apple, they don't. They care about making money. You'd point to Apple's revenue and profit. They'd point to Apple YoY sales decline. You'd say Apple's positive numbers should drive the market. They'd say Apple's growth (or lack thereof) is the determining factor.
You talk about analysts and forum "haters" as if they are the same or the arguments against either group are interchangeable. They're not and they're not. Analyst aren't haters. They're capitalists.
 
They just don’t learn, do they?

One underestimates Apple to their own detriment.
Yeah but they end up with clicks either way. They generate interest with this and then when the phone launches, long before we get any firm numbers, they'll be talking about how the phone is doing poorly because availability is good.

June: "Apple slows orders on components based on weak previous iPhone (whichever) sales"
September: "iPhone sales tepid at launch as buyers continue to buy lesser iPhone models"
December: "New iPhone sales more popular than all other models combined but removal of headphone jack remains controversial..."

click click click... ;)
 
Wonder how apple will handle those on the Apple Upgrade Program who bought an iPhone X in November and wish to upgrade to an iPhone X Plus in September. Will they do an even swap or will they make you pay the remaining 2 payments?

OMG... I was thinking about that too last week. :rolleyes::rolleyes:

I do like the iPhone upgrade option. However Citizens Bank customer services & website is HORRIBLE!!!!

Not an option to pay in advance at all just an account balance summary....

I called them and it took 45 min going through there auto prompt system to try to get to a rep & I was hung-up on.

2nd attempt 1hr 20 min to get to a live person and explain what I want to do which was pay in advance to make sure I'm ready for next launch. for the advance payment was an additional $10 service charge.... WTF!!!!:mad::mad::mad:

So I admit I could have just used my barclays card but figured I save it for new MBP & iPad but after this who knows...

Apple needs to have a chat with Citizens....:mad::mad::mad:
 
I'm not surprised that orders are expected to decline. I have an iPhone 7, and I'm very happy with it, even though this is the first time I haven't purchased a new phone every year. I'll probably get a new phone in the fall, but it's definitely not a sure thing.

Still, a 20% reduction seems huge, which makes me doubt the rumor is correct. There are other possibilities, too. Maybe Apple is trying to optimize its supply chain in some way to ensure better just in time manufacturing. Maybe there are more colors or some other reason to keep inventory more responsive to demand.
 
10-bit color "capture & display" is the ONLY new feature / capability that will prompt the masses to Upgrade ... and AAPL very-likely knows this ... as such, if they are reducing their Orders, then 10-bit color support is very-likely NOT being added later this year :(
 
It will be interesting to see if Apple decides to leverage the most loyal of their customer base by offering to wave their final 1-2 payment(s) if they preordered the X last October.
I don’t see Apple giving up millions of dollars for loyalty. Either someone will need to compress their 12 month obligation into a shorter time period (effectively raising the per month fee) or wait. Apple won’t give up that much money just for goodwill. Now I can see them adding the overage onto the monthly payments instead of making people pay it upfront. That would solve the problem without them losing out on millions.
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10-bit color "capture & display" is the ONLY new feature / capability that will prompt the masses to Upgrade ... and AAPL very-likely knows this ... as such, if they are reducing their Orders, then 10-bit color support is very-likely NOT being added later this year :(
I very much doubt the masses even know what 10 bit color is. Most displays for years were really 6 bit and people thought they were awesome. What will trigger upgrading is likely going to be more computational photography options.
 
Absolutely every large smartphone manufacturer has had at least one reset update where they fixed problems instead of introducing new features. This includes Google, Samsung, LG, Motorola, Apple, etc. Should everyone abandon a phone at the first software glitch? Is anyone who sticks with whatever brand they currently prefer that has a problem a ‘sheeple’?
People paying a premium for mediocrisy come pretty close to that qualification
 
The problem is you're trying to apply "fan logic" to capitalism. It doesn't work. You care about Apple, they don't. They care about making money. You'd point to Apple's revenue and profit. They'd point to Apple YoY sales decline. You'd say Apple's positive numbers should drive the market. They'd say Apple's growth (or lack thereof) is the determining factor.
You talk about analysts and forum "haters" as if they are the same or the arguments against either group are interchangeable. They're not and they're not. Analyst aren't haters. They're capitalists.

True story. And other part of this fan logic is that every bit of unfavorable news about Apple is automatically "stock market manipulation" (i.e., a federal crime). It's pretty much impossible to explain what analysts do to an audience of fans who don't understand the markets, or that while analysts are hardly always right, their job is to be as close to on the money as possible. You can explain all of that until you are blue in the face, all the while knowing that juicy conspiracy theories are going to be so much more appealing than the dull truth.
 
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