Apple's Suppliers Projecting Weak Demand for iPhone 7 Due to 'Lack of Innovation'

Isn't the S series supposed to be an enhancement of the preceding model rather than a redesign. I cant see the 7s being a complete overhaul of the 7.
 
I was on the "S" cycle because of the way AT&T contracts use to work. You were paying for a subsidized phone every month wether you were still under contract or not. Once my 4s contracts was over I was still paying for a subsidized phone so I payed the money to get a 5s and sold my 4s for more than what I paid to get the 5s under contract. I felt "forced" to upgrade. It wasn't until December 2013, weeks after the 5S was released that they started giving a credit once your contract was over. When that happen I didn't feel forced to upgrade anymore so I skipped the 6S. I don't care if I have the newest phone or if it is innovative enough. When my 5S dies, the battery doesn't hold a charge, I can't upgrade to the latest operating system to patch vulnerabilities or if the phone is too slow with the latest version if iOS (for me that is like the speed of an iPad 2 on iOS9) I am not changing my phone. I know how much I was paying before so this has nothing to do with the price been more transparent now. I did not buy a 5s because the screen was bigger than the 4s or because it was 64bit. I bought it because I was technically going to be paying for it wether I had it or not. If I had waited just two months (to December 2013 when they started giving the credit) I wouldn't have change my 4S until who knows when.
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Bazooka-joe said:
Isn't the S series supposed to be an enhancement of the preceding model rather than a redesign. I cant see the 7s being a complete overhaul of the 7.
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Maybe they will call the next phones 6SE and 6SE+ and hold the name 7 until 2017. That would follow the pattern of the 5, 5S and 5SE.
 
The iPhone 7 to me, at this point, seems like a revamped 6S. It's going to need a killer feature to reel in the 6/6S users. An upgraded Camera is not enough anymore. If Apple incorporates a solid version of iOS 10 and one or
Two solid Hardware/Software features, it might stand a chance.
 
Apple almost seems as if it is entering the position that Microsoft was in a decade or so ago. They were losing customers to Apple but had billions of dollars to weather the transition. It could be that Apple must sustain several years of stalled innovation and disconnection but hopefully like Microsoft they will recover, reinvent themselves and make compelling products again.
 
Bazooka-joe said:
Isn't the S series supposed to be an enhancement of the preceding model rather than a redesign. I cant see the 7s being a complete overhaul of the 7.
Click to expand...

Apparently per the building view of what's about to happen, the next iPhone will be a hiccup to that cycle. OR this impending iPhone 7 will jump right to iPhone 8 (or maybe just iPhone)- the one- apparently- getting all of the bigger ideas.

Some have guessed the next new iPhone might just add another letter: 6se or similar. 6s++?

But make no mistake: it will look obviously aesthetically different from every iPhone before it. Why? Because it will be the first iPhone with a hardware tail- the adapter for 3.5mm headphones hanging out of the Lightning jack. Everyone will be able to tell that "we" own the latest & the greatest because that tail will show it so very clearly. So relax everyone. If you need strangers to know you've got the newest version, that's already well in hand. ;)

Besides, a very slightly "thinner" phone in one pocket and 1+ adapters (to make it do a very common thing it used to be able to without the adapter) in the other pocket might somewhat balance us all out. I think they should innovate ejecting the battery and maybe camera next and let us buy those as add-on accessories too. Apparently, many of us don't mind... and will go to great lengths to convince the rest that do mind. So why not? Eject the battery and the future iPhone could get a LOT "thinner". Kick the camera out and that too would allow "thinning". In fact, just kick it all out to accessories (sold separately of course) and the run to "thinnest" could be realized sooner than later. Yes, that's an empty box that costs $1000 but some of us will pay... and gush about it... and work hard to convince the rest that it is perfect in every way. ;)
 
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nelmat said:
I'm really losing patience with Apple. Massive product line-ups, confusing for the average purchaser. No fresh design, slow/sloppy implementation of software, services and hardware. It really does feel like a downward slope.

Of course, the company can afford to let things slide a bit, they're no going bust any time soon, but I'm considering a move away from Apple for the first time since 1987. I've drunk the cool-aid, my entire ecosystem is Apple, but I'm about done. AirDrop is a mess, hand-off works when it feels like it, software updates are hidden and unclear, search in App Store and iTunes Store is flakey at best. iLife and iWork suites are forgotten and left in the dust by free and inexpensive software from small developers.

Where is the excitement, where is the fun? It really is stagnant.

Just my opinion, others will disagree with me, but surely all will agree there's been nothing exciting for a couple of years. No more 'one more thing'. The iPad is dead, the Mac Pro stagnant, the Thunderbolt Display as good as a fossil. It's a real shame. Incremental updates, while sucking all the colour out of the world.
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I know what you mean. My family has been buying Apple products since the Apple IIe. I remember as a kid getting excited for Jobs to announce that 'one more thing'.

It's depressing to me that I am actually happy about the iPhone SE. One the one hand, it's the definition of a boring incremental upgrade that doesn't demonstrate any great technical or design achievement by Apple. But on the other hand, and sadly, it gives me a 'cheap' way to upgrade my iPhone 5s while I wait for the iPhone 8 (which will hopefully live up to the way too early hype).
 
It's time for Apple to do something big. In the past few months I have seen people switch to Android that I never thought would switch. And I am now on the bubble. If the iPhone 7 doesn't impress it's going to really hurt Apple. Tim Cook needs to abandon his playing it safe method that he has gone with since day one and switch to more of a Steve Jobs method and take some risks. I miss the days where I was actually excited for new product announcements because there was always something exciting. I don't even watch the keynotes anymore. It's become and yearly cycle of slightly altering the design while slowly bumping up the specs while adding relatively nothing new.
 
Wow. All those companies expecting slowdowns because of the iPhone.

I guess the world really DOES revolve around the iPhone, if an entire component industry rises and falls with the sales of the iPhone.
 
Well, I won't wait for 2017 for a phone I like. Without significant improvement and innovation, android looks might appealing. I have no problem jumping ship anymore. Tim boasts about Apple loyalty like it's customers are sheep.

I have been a loyal customer of Steve for over 15 years because he always kept something up his sleeve. He always had the hidden punch. Tim is in la la land, and turned Apple into HP.
 
I'll wait till September and see what Apple brings to the table with the iPhone 7, if it's nothing amazing then I might get an SE and use that till they can tempt me to get a 'flagship' iPhone again
 
Soccertess said:
Well, I won't wait for 2017 for a phone I like. Without significant improvement and innovation, android looks might appealing. I have no problem jumping ship anymore. Tim boasts about Apple loyalty like it's customers are sheep.

I have been a loyal customer of Steve for over 15 years because he always kept something up his sleeve. He always had the hidden punch. Tim is in la la land, and turned Apple into HP.
Click to expand...

Tim is at a critical point with his time at Apple. If he doesn't take risks over the next 12-24 months he going to find his time with Apple coming to an end as sales continue to drop.
 
MagMan1979 said:
Lack of innovation????

  • First to market with pressure-sensitive capacitive touch screen
  • First to market with phone made of 7000-series military-grade aluminium
  • First to market with SSD NAND flash controller for laptop-class R/W storage performance
  • Still best-in-class fingerprint reader that cannot be matched for accuracy, response time, and security of any other reader
  • Still best-in-class SoC that with only dual cores puts 8-core Droids to shame in both single and multi-core performance
  • Most stable OS on mobile
  • Best-in-class update rollout times for OS
I could keep going, but you catch my drift...
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1. ForceTouch is pretty much useless. The trackpad function is the only one I use on a regular basis.
2. Nice marketing term. Buying harder aluminium because your old phone bends like a spoon, how innovative.
3. Faster drivespeeds aren't innovation, but fine.
4. LG, HTC, Huawei, Oppo...
5. Technologie is getting faster, amazing.
6. Most stable OS? Never noticed any crash on Android ever. Okay, I'm mostly using my iPhone and I'm pleased with it, too, but being more stable? Pretty much the same.
7. And after 2 or 3 years everybody recommends not installing updates, because the phone starts slowing down.
 
stanman64 said:
iPhone 4 made the whole industry go "Wow!!!" and opened the floodgates for a whole new area in mobile computing.

You can't sanely expect that to happen every year.
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I think it reasonable and sane to expect a company sitting on $billions of cash (with more coming in reliably every quarter), some of the smartest engineers on the planet and the ability to buy almost anything they might need to be successful to routinely come up with new, exciting, relevant products. The fact the current crop of senior managers fail to achieve this and continue to get stupidly well rewarded is frankly a disgrace.

History has shown there is always a new frontier at which to innovate, Apple management are complacent, arrogant wasters. The regular comments from Cook about the exciting/astonishing new products in the pipeline are B/S.
 
tw1ll said:
I think it reasonable and sane to expect a company sitting on $billions of cash (with more coming in reliably every quarter), some of the smartest engineers on the planet and the ability to buy almost anything they might need to be successful to routinely come up with new, exciting, relevant products. The fact the current crop of senior managers fail to achieve this and continue to get stupidly well rewarded is frankly a disgrace.

History has shown there is always a new frontier at which to innovate, Apple management are complacent, arrogant wasters. The regular comments from Cook about the exciting/astonishing new products in the pipeline are B/S.
Click to expand...

I would argue that they have been routinely coming up with new, exciting, and relevant products since 2007... buuuut only up until about 2012-2013.

However, I do agree with you that there indeed has been a decline recently. The post I quoted was over exaggerating, while you're actually making sense. I believe that Cook needs to go. He had his time as a placeholder CEO.
 
American Hero said:
Useless.


And it's the ugliest phone in the market. Innovation doesn't include what the phone is made out of... That doesn't count, sorry.


Debatable.


That's because iOS is a feather-weight.


Again, debatable. iOS seems to be more buggy than ever.


You feel sorry for someone who probably bought a superior phone. When was the last time you even used an Android phone? 2008?
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I've already upvoted your post but want to thank you for taking the time to answer.
The feel sorry part was really "unreadable"
 
American Hero said:
Useless.


And it's the ugliest phone in the market. Innovation doesn't include what the phone is made out of... That doesn't count, sorry.


Debatable.


That's because iOS is a feather-weight.


Again, debatable. iOS seems to be more buggy than ever.


You feel sorry for someone who probably bought a superior phone. When was the last time you even used an Android phone? 2008?
Click to expand...
2008 or today. Androids are still bad. They are the compromise phone.
 
In addition to my last post, I must say Android and the manufacturers pay attention to the small details in the operating system now, which is something Apple used to do.

For example, when I'm surfing the web or playing a game and I receive a call, it shows up in the notification center, and doesn't stop my app and take up the entire screen.

When I want to see more settings I can drag the notification down further on a second swipe which displays all of the options I need... Apple has a few in the control center, but that's about it.

Settings in the actual settings menu are in categories and there's a search function that makes sense.

Google Voice dictation is much superior to Siri, and is probably the reason why there's rumors about Siri getting an overhaul.
 
American Hero said:
Useless.


And it's the ugliest phone in the market. Innovation doesn't include what the phone is made out of... That doesn't count, sorry.


Debatable.


That's because iOS is a feather-weight.


Again, debatable. iOS seems to be more buggy than ever.


You feel sorry for someone who probably bought a superior phone. When was the last time you even used an Android phone? 2008?
Click to expand...

More buggy than ever rank nonsense & before you ask I also use a Note 5 alongside my iPhone 6 S+. Both OS types suffer bugs at various times but I haven't noticed one worse than the other in this respect.
 
Bazooka-joe said:
Isn't the S series supposed to be an enhancement of the preceding model rather than a redesign. I cant see the 7s being a complete overhaul of the 7.
Click to expand...

iPhone 6s Stasi Edition The iPhone 6sS Now coming with surveillance bloatware and user identified anonymous phone performance feedback.
 
super chimp said:
More buggy than ever rank nonsense & before you ask I also use a Note 5 alongside my iPhone 6 S+. Both OS types suffer bugs at various times but I haven't noticed one worse than the other in this respect.
Click to expand...

It seems like every update has problems now (iOS). Wifi won't connect suddenly.. Or cellular signal will go away, or whatever. It's gotten so bad Apple has had to pull the software updates to fix them. It's like Apple doesn't even test iOS before releasing it.
 
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