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Wonder if the change is subsidized iPhone pricing with att had a hand in it? I'm grandfathered in to unlimited data and the only way to upgrade now is to buy at full price or switch to the NEXT plan (and lose unlimited data)
You were always paying full price. The "subsidy" was just an imaginary way to make people think the phones were cheap, but the full price of the phone was included in the contractual price that you had to pay over two years. You might as well just cut out the carrier middleman, charge the phone on your credit card, and pay it over the same time period.
 
But Apple is still earning more than 90% of all smartphone profits.

So? Just because Apple earn 90% of all smartphone profits yesterday, does not make true in the future.

The point is will Apple able to sustain this in the future? I highly doubt that. The fact is that we see iPhone's sales decline while Samsung and other brands doing respectively well.

Kuo has point. Unless Apple comes up with some useful innovations, iPhone's sale will continue decline. frankly, we don't see any real innovations comes from Apple in recent years.
 
Market saturation sucks. It happened to tablets and PCs. :apple: Need a new signature product and the :apple:Watch didn't do it.

As I've said elsewhere, some of Apple staff do need to be looking for the next innovation, but most of Apple staff should be taking care of their commodity products by making sure they have the latest tech for the best cost. Apple quit doing that on their Mac line years ago. Its like they can't be bothered. They better get it together with iPhones or those big stock option plans are going to be worthless in 10 years.
 
You were always paying full price. The "subsidy" was just an imaginary way to make people think the phones were cheap, but the full price of the phone was included in the contractual price that you had to pay over two years.

Thank you!

It's odd this practice was referred to as a "subsidy" anyway.

If you're paying for something yourself... that's about as far away from being a "subsidy" as you can get.

What's worse is that people actually believed that an iPhone cost $199.

That's the biggest crime of all!
 
You were always paying full price. The "subsidy" was just an imaginary way to make people think the phones were cheap, but the full price of the phone was included in the contractual price that you had to pay over two years. You might as well just cut out the carrier middleman, charge the phone on your credit card, and pay it over the same time period.


You do realize that credit card charges you 20% interest right? That is pretty high interest.

iPhone is not doing as well in European or China as USA, because people paying full price for the phone. Where there is no carrier subsidy, Android tends to lot better than iOS.
 
What a joke. To justify that Apple is not continuing to increase sold units, they compare to Samsung (that had hard times last year) and other chinese brands that start to sell on new markets, so gaining shares with low cost mobiles. What about LG, Sony, HTC, Moto (arf sorry Lenovo), etc? Apple is not doing especially bad. All of them are hoping to do as "bad" as Apple, especially in terms of profits.
 
If they change the name of the OSX... mountain lion, yosemite, el capitan... why not get innovative with the name... 3, 4 ,5 ,6 ,7 is not an innovative naming.. or sparks no interest... it wasn't even a concept it followed the service, 3g' then 4 to match 4g... but it's not about that yet the name didn't evolve. I know everyone calls is an iphone and is well recognized by that name alone... but it's generally followed up by which one. I get the saturation and slow upgrading progression is also made the iphone stale, just saying in general.
 
You do realize that credit card charges you 20% interest right? That is pretty high interest.

Yeah, it's on the entire unpaid balance of your CC - which is incredibly high interest - which is incredibly bad advice to carry the iPhone cost on your CC.
 
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Apple is stagnant, resting on its laurels and simply way too slow in product development in a globally competitive world. When was the last time they released a product, especially an iPhone, where people when "wow!"? They are becoming 1990's Microsoft - trying to do too many things in too many segments. Apple Car - really?

It still produces great products, but their competitive advantage is shrinking fast. Tim Cook - Apple need to step up its game and focus on creating a few great products, not a smorgesborg of decent products.
 
Strong US dollar is a big factor not mentioned.

... and the prices differ from country to country. I just put one in the cart.

iPhone 6S Plus 128GB, AppleCare, Case: 1.282,95 Euro

That would be the model I want but I would NEVER buy it for this amount of money.
My iPhone 6 Plus 64GB with case and AppleCare was below 1000 Euro.

This is nearly a 30% increase.
 
If Apple is under the impression that they can release a minorly updated 6S in late 2016 and make it a huge seller, they're sadly mistaken. If that's the case, I won't be upgrading from my 6 Plus anytime soon.

See, Apple has a tendency of being late to the party with new features, but when they finally arrive they're awesome. At least that's how it used to be. At this point Apple is moving from "fashionably late" territory to just plain rudely late to the party.

I think you'd find that you would be the one who was sadly mistaken; people will buy it in gigantic volumes, regardless of some forum opinion. Apple would (and did) survive very comfortably on Mac and iPod sales alone. They don't care if you buy a new iPhone or not - they care about releasing the most beautiful and elegantly designed, simple to use products there are, and they KNOW people adore and revere them and their products, it's not a spec race for Apple, it's about refining and iterating the experience slowly and thoughtfully.

They're artists; they make something THEY wanted to make, and if you like it you buy it, and if you don't? Oh well.

"The philosophy has always been to be the best, not the first."

Tim Cook, 2014
 
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You do realize that credit card charges you 20% interest right? That is pretty high interest.

iPhone is not doing as well in European or China as USA, because people paying full price for the phone. Where there is no carrier subsidy, Android tends to lot better than iOS.

I would say in Asia (most developing countries like India and the like) have no official Apple stores for people to test and send for after sales services. If Apple sets up shop, I think the % of phones sold will increase.

Flagship Androids prices are also close to Apple's offerings. It's mostly the budget and mid-range phones that make the bulk of sales.
 
After all these years, it still blows my mind when analysts make sales predictions about devices that haven't even been manufactured or announced yet.

To be fair... the analysts are considering the quarter we're in right now... where it is expected that Apple will announce next week that the current April quarter will have the first drop in sales in the history of the iPhone.

If that's true... what makes you think the July or October quarters will be any better? I can't imagine the iPhone 6S and SE will skyrocket in popularity the rest of this year.

So if Apple's sales are down for multiple quarters this year... then 2016 will, in fact, be a disappointing year of no growth. That's what the analysts are basing their predictions on.

Could the iPhone 7 wow everyone and sell 100 million units a quarter? Sure! But that won't be reported until January 2017

As it stands... it looks like Apple will not sell as many units in 2016 as they did in 2015

It's not all doom and gloom though. The units Apple does sell will be very high-margin units that other companies can only dream of selling in that volume.

Still though... a drop like this has never happened before. I'll be interested to see Apple's response to this.
 
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2017 10th anniversary iPhone will be a beast. i think it'll release earlier than september, with mid-distance wireless charging being the breakthrough feature.

Just thinking about 2016 iPhone, i think only features will be missing headphone jack, true tone display, no antenna lines on rear, dual camera 5.5 inch iPhone.

I'm hoping iOS 10 will be great software update, because the hardware will be minimally changed.
 
No surprise. As we reach peak smartphone and flagships continue to fall in price, less people are prepared to pay so much for a phone that is behind competitors in many respects.

Someone will probably flame you for this comment, but I agree.

I could go on about how much love IOS needs (puke colors was not it) but I think Apple isn't going to be able to continue the trend of charging double for less for much longer.

The iPhone's price is really becoming a sticking point now that there is no such thing as "$199" upgrade. When you are paying full price for your device, you feel that price point.

You also not only feel the price point when upgrading, but it makes people start to compare other devices where before they may not have even considered doing so. "Hmm. This android device does more.... has more under the hood.... is cheaper.... has great reviews.... and my payment each month is a lot less.... oh, and it comes with TWICE the storage and 2-3 time more RAM? Has SD card slot? I can change the battery?"

This isn't trolling, it's reality. I have seen quite a few people walk in for a new iPhone and walk out with a Samsung, LG, or other device.

I have the LGV10, paid $649 for a superior camera, better audio, 32GB (plus free 256GB SD card and spare battery with charging cradle), 4 GB ram, 5.7 inch display (and smaller the the plus).

The most comparable iPhone model is $849. I'm a few hundred shy of a macbook pro. The demise of carrier subsidy is something people are beginning to feel, as many people are only just falling out of their final contracts and experiencing the buy your device outright for the first time.

I've used iPhones and Androids.... and really do like Android better and it's ease of use is matched to IOS these days (back in the day Android had a bit of a learning curve due to all the OEM customizations but not anymore). The price and specs are deal breakers for me and lots of people.

They need to drop the price or up the ante with more base storage and memory.

Oh, and get rid of the damn forhead and chin on the iPhone. The iPhone shouldn't be as big as it is. Forget thinner. It doesn't need to be thinner. It needs an inch or 2 lopped off in height!
 
To be fair... the analysts are considering the quarter we're in right now... where it is expected that Apple will announce next week that the current April quarter will have the first drop in sales in the history of the iPhone.

If that's true... what makes you think the July or October quarters will be any better? I can't imagine the iPhone 6S and SE will skyrocket in popularity the rest of this year.

So if Apple's sales are down for multiple quarters this year... then 2016 will, in fact, be a disappointing year of no growth. That's what the analysts are basing their predictions on.

Could the iPhone 7 wow everyone and sell 100 million units a quarter? Sure! But that won't be reported until January 2017

As it stands... it looks like Apple will not sell as many units in 2016 as they did in 2015

It's not all doom and gloom though. The units Apple does sell will be very high-margin units that other companies can only dream of selling in that volume.

Still though... a drop like this has never happened before. I'll be interested to see Apple's response to this.
Sure, but to just blindly claim that an unannounced phone will have no must have features is silly. He doesn't know that any more than I do.
 
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As an example - 20% growth on a 100 million customer base is much less than 20% on a 200 million customer base - so 20% won't be sustainable for a single product line into the future. Apple has been able to cleverly add new products and rehash older ones to retain or grow margins that leads to growth overall. Investors should still be happy if Apple can show growth YOY - this should not be tied down to a single product line, even if iPhone holds 56% of total revenue today. Many new avenues are opening up - from VR to bio-sensors to better AI and electric motor vehicles - all industries that Apple can target as the new markets mature. The portfiolio needs to show growth, not just the iPhone.
 
I wish Apple would do two things it won't do: :(

1: Release a (dare I say it) Proper desktop computer, like a PC, to compete against PC's.
Not a laptop on a stand glued to the back of a large monitor.

2: Release a high end, world leading games console, to be right up there with Sony and Msoft.

Of course Apple will not do either of these, but hey, I can dream.... one day.... one day....
 
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