If you look at the recent hardware releases, they are significantly more expensive. Unit sales growth is flat. I think that your post is right on target; they don't want people seeing the margin numbers.
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Apple to Stop Providing Unit Sales Data for iPhone, iPad and Mac Starting With December Quarter
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If you look at the recent hardware releases, they are significantly more expensive. Unit sales growth is flat. I think that your post is right on target; they don't want people seeing the margin numbers.
True.
But to be fair... Nokia or Blackberry never sold 200 million smartphones a year at an average price of over $700 each. It's a completely different scenario.
Blackberry's highest yearly revenue was $20 billion in 2011.
Apple can make three times as much revenue in just 3 months today.
I understand the point you're making though... it might be dangerous to rely on one product. But the amount of revenue being tossed around today is nothing like it was in previous years from other companies. It's extraordinary.
All that said... I do believe that iPhone sales will hit a peak. They have to. ALL companies experience this. There is no such thing as infinite growth.
It's funny though... no one ever mentions what happened to that other giant smartphone manufacturer.
4 years ago Samsung hit a sales peak of 88.5 million smartphones in a single quarter. But they've never reached that number again since then.
Perhaps it is possible to survive post-peak.
Then you did hear about their almost-bankruptcy just before 2000.
This what? This best ever
This is what happen? What are you referring to? This best EVER quarter? Were they sell more iphone since the iphone was launched?
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I can’ Remember them setting the best quarter ever those days, selling the most macs ever.
This is what happen? What are you referring to? This best EVER quarter? Were they sell more iphone since the iphone was launched?
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I can’ Remember them setting the best quarter ever those days, selling the most macs ever.
Samsung doesn’t just make completed electronics though. Along with their parts business. (SSDs, RAM, etc,) they also make TVs, housing developments and military vessels. I don’t think Apple is quite as diversified as Samsung.
As I see this is not down to market saturation for the most part. Their global market share has been going down the drain. Meaning, while the market is expanding, Apple market is regressing adding to the fact they seam unable to pair the iPhone with another blockbuster that does not necessary depend on it.
One may argue that, they are focusing their efforts in the Lion share of the market. But to do so their are prunning many current customers out of the tree.
For me, as humanist, this is trouble some, because they are doing it not down to any profitability problem that they have, by the contrary they are the most profitable company in the world probably. As a shareholder I care for the company as long as it keeps going upwards, but it does not seam reasonable that this can be sustained mainly pricing up. In fact, this is usually a symptom of a crash coming considering that they have been doing this for quite a long time.
The most valuable asset they have out of many things, it’s their customer and in my view they are playing the price game against them for quite some time just to look marvelous in Wallstreet.
One may argue that, they are focusing their efforts in the Lion share of the market. But to do so their are prunning many current customers out of the tree.
For me, as humanist, this is trouble some, because they are doing it not down to any profitability problem that they have, by the contrary they are the most profitable company in the world probably. As a shareholder I care for the company as long as it keeps going upwards, but it does not seam reasonable that this can be sustained mainly pricing up. In fact, this is usually a symptom of a crash coming considering that they have been doing this for quite a long time.
The most valuable asset they have out of many things, it’s their customer and in my view they are playing the price game against them for quite some time just to look marvelous in Wallstreet.
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I'm just waiting for the $99 a month plan that includes an iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch each year, along with iCloud storage, Apple Music, and Apple TV memberships.
[doublepost=1541158748][/doublepost]Ah, I knew this would trigger the "Apple is doomed" people. They get off on this. I think I recognize some of these posts like they were copied and pasted from 3, 5, 10 years ago. Apple will diversify, adjust, and continue to release great products and increase in revenue.
[doublepost=1541158748][/doublepost]Ah, I knew this would trigger the "Apple is doomed" people. They get off on this. I think I recognize some of these posts like they were copied and pasted from 3, 5, 10 years ago. Apple will diversify, adjust, and continue to release great products and increase in revenue.
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You got my immediate upvote on first read-thru because you said the ONE WORD that I think most people (and certainly Apple's current Exec Team) completely miss: VALUE!
"Value" is the most important metric Apple, as a company, fundamentally, needs to be vectoring towards. It was "value" that Steve Jobs was describing when he talked about "build the best products and the money will follow". it wasn't the most expensive, or the most blingy, it was that consumers would eventually come to see that Apple products delivering great VALUE were worth the premium… that it really wasn't -even- a premium, in the long run. The 2009/2010 MacBook Pro was a great example of VALUE. (I'm still running one! And it was, at the time, Apple's most-selling Mac ever created. It also got shipped while Steve was "away", so maybe it wasn't a Steve-baby at all. ??) This current Exec Team has lost the "art" of Value. And I'm not sure that perhaps they have failed to grasp it because Steve Jobs failed them, that maybe Steve Jobs by the end of his life had been seduced by the monetary success of the iPhone and lost focus on the importance of "value". An argument could be made that another path to sales over value is to pull off the Devil's "trick": convince the customer that "value" can also be defined in other, less-tangible ways (social prestige, reputation, "luxury"). Apple marketing has certainly latched onto that, that much is obvious.
But you are, IMHO, spot on… the value proposition of Apple's recent products (since 2012 at least) is way off, and if you look at the sales numbers since 2012 it shows. And I see it every day with my clients, when they wrinkle their brow at the amalgamation of pricing, idiosyncrasies, and problems of Apple's current devices when considering upgrading 3-to-5 year old (or more) Macs. The value of the new kit has so far diminished they're not upgrading, or doing so begrudgingly, or moving back to Windows and PCs. That's sad. And Mac sales during that time are flat. Can't be coincidence.
Actually unit sales growth is at 200,000 units not flat like people keep parroting, asp is near $800 dollars and revenue is up 29% yoy
lul. Apple is doomed.
No one else provides numbers, why should Apple? Shorters have used the numbers to manipulate their stock for years.
Could but have you seen financial Samsung mobile posted the other day, it’s not pretty. Operating profit is around 1.9 billion for the entire division.
Samsung mobile sales fell 12%, their ASps are dropping, their premium smartphone line has collapsed and they now intend to focus on midrange and high margin phones with a foldable display. Good luck with that.
Guidance going forward isn’t pretty.
Samsung chip division has reached its peak too, with memory and ssd prices falling, guidance going
Forward isn’t rosy.
Don’t forget apple and a bunch of other tech companies bought toshibas memory and ssd division so demand and prices for Samsung chips is falling. that division used to make up a large portion of Samsung’s revenue.
Don’t think you would want that I would have exited India. There are a lot of Chinese companies willing to sell at loss to cater to India and their definition of value, like Lenovo whose sales completely collapsed in India this year.
Around 44 million smartphones per quarter with only 4 million units priced above $800. Which is basically most of the iPhones apple sells, so what’s the point again? If they take half the sales that’s 8million a year, they currently sell 4 Million a year. So I will ask you again what’s the point? Not much from where I’m standing.
Sorry but most of the Indians I know that are extremely wealthy live and purchase most of their iPhones from the Uk not India, a lot of other Indians with disposable incomes purchase their devices from America, Europe, Australia etc. Etc.
Apple is looking to grow their service revenue in India by selling cheaper hardware, that’s about it. I wouldn’t but they seem to want to. Good for them.
I think this is a sign of Apple's desire to transform into a services company--App Store, ApplePay, Apple Music, AppleCare, iCloud, etc.--for which their hardware is merely a gateway into their paid services. Historically, Apple has been viewed as a hardware company and consequently evaluated in large part on its marketshare (based on units sold). This move helps Apple deemphasize marketshare and focus purely on revenue and profits.
However, this strategy is very risky. Services depend on hardware and Apple appears to be preparing to place all of its eggs in one (ARM-based) basket.
Personally, I continue to think Apple is going to merge its hardware and software platform around its ARM-based CPUs because the largest market which offers continuing revenue is phones (replaced every three years as opposed to every five years for computers), which Apple now views as the primary gateway into its ecosystem. Establishing an entire ecosystem on its phone hardware (i.e. ARM) is the most certain way to guarantee continuing revenue through hardware and more importantly software sales.
This does not mean that macOS and iOS will be the same OS or even have the same interface, but rather that both will become based on the ARM architecture. Apple will continue to reduce the differences between the OSes until software that runs on one set of devices runs on all devices (though probably with certain caveats, e.g. split screen may be limited to iPads and Macs while being unavailable on iPhones due to screen space and resolution).
The danger for Apple is two-fold: first, Apple's high hardware prices could reduce its marketshare to the point that it negatively affects their revenue from services and second, Apple's shift to ARM may lead to a mass exodus from its Mac platform, especially if Windows continues to use x86-64 CPUs. We shall see if Apple will be able to maintain its higher ASPs and if Apple will be able to retain its base of Mac user during its upcoming architecture transition without losing so much marketshare that it damages its services revenue.
In sum, Apple is moving to become a company primarily for the masses. Professionals and users with specialized needs (e.g. A/V professionals, engineers, those wanting home servers, etc.) will need to find solutions elsewhere (Windows, Linux, pre-packaged NAS solutions, etc.).
I think they'll offer monthly payment plan for hardware, which is essentially a service.
Samsung have many fingers in many pies. Literally more pies than most people know about. I don't think they really need to worry about dropping a couple of tens of millions of phone sales. They are pretty much the embodiment of being sensible and not relying on 1 thing to bring in the cash. The might sell less smartphones in the £200-300 bracket this year, but they may sell more fridge freezers in the £500+ market as well.
Wall street has always concentrated on the numbers, thats all they care about. Just now they don't have a certain metric to go buy. I think this all plays very heavily into Apple's across the board price increases on EVERYTHING this year. If they stopped reporting unit sales and then kept product prices the same, there would be a decline in revenue in the coming quarters....AND WE CANT HAVE THAT NOW CAN WE!?! The world would end.
It's pretty obvious that iPhone unit sales peaked with the release of the 6 back in 2014. In the 10/14 - 09/15 fiscal year they hit an all time record of 235 million units sold. It has hovered in the 215-225 million range ever since.
Growth expectation is what drives stock prices, particularly in the short term. Tim knows continuing to call attention to a metric that has been stagnant for four years will detract from future expectations. Better to bury it and focus on revenue for now. However, after this year I think even revenue growth is going to taper significantly. Prices can't go much higher than they are now.
Growth expectation is what drives stock prices, particularly in the short term. Tim knows continuing to call attention to a metric that has been stagnant for four years will detract from future expectations. Better to bury it and focus on revenue for now. However, after this year I think even revenue growth is going to taper significantly. Prices can't go much higher than they are now.
I’d agree that their are ‘good’ alternatives, but I want the best, and so do many others - and Apple makes that. Both in hardware and software.
With tariffs and yearly inflation, prices can and will go up. Yet currently, I still think for what your getting, in all categories (Macs, iOS, Accessories) you’re getting a fair deal (with some exceptions to base storage sizes in the Mac lineup). People online want to crap on the new air and Mac mini, but these were precisely what I’ve been wanting for a while, and the price isn’t bad.
What Apple needs to do is revisit the lower tier pricing. The XR isn’t a budget phone and it’s huge. Apple has forgotten (for the time being) about the SE line, IPad Mini, and the $700-1000 segment for MacBooks. They keep pushing the pricing scheme up (for justifiably better products). Ideally I’d love to see the MacBook take over the old 700-1000 MacBook Air pricing line, a iPhone X like 4-5” in the $499-$599 range, and an updated bezel-less mini in the 399-499 range.
This would not only cater to a market like myself (love the mini), it would increase unit sales (at the cost of ASP), and allow a lower price range that isn’t so intimidating to some — all the while maintiining that apple quality.
Wishful thinking? Maybe Apple see’s this, and has it in their slow pipeline.
I really thought they were going to do it last year. As the last one to still publish numbers like that, they are constantly beat about iphone numbers not hitting what someone projects despite record sales and profit for the company. They just announced the largest quarter ever for a non-xmas quarter in both sales and profit, and the stock went down. Some will argue its because of their forecast, but again, they predicted next quarter will be the largest one ever, more sales and more profit then ever before, and even MR is calling it "cautious". The most valuable company in the world by stock value says its going to have it biggest and most profitable quarter ever next quarter, and thats being "cautious" to a bunch of silly analysts.
$99 a month seems too low for all the devices in your list