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Decline in iPhone Shipments Could Make Apple Worst-Performing Top Five Smartphone Brand of 2016

Piggie said:
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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You must be new here.

~ Mac Mini
~ Mac Pro

I like that you say "right up there" with Sony and Microsoft - I think you meant "right DOWN there"

If you need more help, ask someone experienced.
 
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uid15 said:
No they won't. Keep making statements, they don't equal fact just because you type them.
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They don't equal fact.... but I don't think his prediction is totally out of line except he implies the device will be a failure.
The iPhone is far from a failure even if Apple has a sales decline. That's still a crap load of devices sold!

But I agree... and already shared my opinion. Price is starting to matter more to people now that subsidies are gone.
Not just iPhone users. Even Android is seeing this. There are very price disruptive devices that are nearly on par with flagships like the Galaxy 7 for $400-$500.

Do you really think Apple brought back the 5 form factor because people were demanding a tiny phone? They were looking to fill that price gap and snag people who are too price sensitive but up the internals so it's not really last years model discounted, but recycle enough old tech to keep their margins at a ridiculous 40%. (Thus the ****** camera, old touch ID sensor, and other old parts packed inside).
 
MacAddict1978 said:
They don't equal fact.... but I don't think his prediction is totally out of line except he implies the device will be a failure.
The iPhone is far from a failure even if Apple has a sales decline. That's still a crap load of devices sold!

But I agree... and already shared my opinion. Price is starting to matter more to people now that subsidies are gone.
Not just iPhone users. Even Android is seeing this. There are very price disruptive devices that are nearly on par with flagships like the Galaxy 7 for $400-$500.

Do you really think Apple brought back the 5 form factor because people were demanding a tiny phone? They were looking to fill that price gap and snag people who are too price sensitive but up the internals so it's not really last years model discounted, but recycle enough old tech to keep their margins at a ridiculous 40%. (Thus the ****** camera, old touch ID sensor, and other old parts packed inside).
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Maybe you missed the SE.
 
uid15 said:
You must be new here.

~ Mac Mini
~ Mac Pro

I like that you say "right up there" with Sony and Microsoft - I think you meant "right DOWN there"

If you need more help, ask someone experienced.
Click to expand...

A mac mini? Are you kidding?

I think he is more than experienced and is thinking something more like the old G4 tower that was priced in line with the iMac with.... LOTS OF BUILD OPTIONS!

The macpro is a pro device and priced like one. The mini hasn't been updated in ages, and it has no balls.

I also wouldn't flame Sony & MS "down there."

Since you are such an experienced expert, then surely you must recall The Pippin....
 
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You would think Apple would be more agressive in terms of giving the iPhone competitive specs considering it makes up a majority of their revenue and the 6s wasn't as big a hit as the 6 (but still significant).
 
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chabig said:
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.
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Wrong. We pay the same monthly rate now as we did when we got $450 off the cost of the phone. You were right at some point, of course, but the day subsidies ended, my costs went up by $450 per line for every upgrade. Switching to one of the newer plans also doesn't reduce my cost (they're actually slightly more expensive).
 
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Kuo respected? That idiot is manipulating the market-- again, next week AAPL will publish reports. So its time for traders to make some profit from market movement. Kuo just wants to increase that movement. BUT to use a product, that is not even announced to prove declining sales?? - I think that makes him "respected"..
 
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Man this guy just talks out of his rear end but knows that every stupid rumor site will publish his stuff as though it's the gospel. There's not one thing in this research note backed up by facts.
 
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WarHeadz said:
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.
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Late like TouchID, 64 bit, dual tone flash, 3D touch late?
 
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NachoGrande said:
If they don't redesign and try to charge $650 for an iPhone SS without the subsidies their sales will be very weak. I'm not upgrading my 6 without an major update.
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Exactly. The 5S was great because of Touch ID. The 6 was great because of the screen size.

The 6S is not a useful device to buy, in my opinion.
3D Touch is not relevant, Live Photos is simply a software feature, etc.

If the iPhone 7 design is like the rumours tell us and Apple will force True Tone on us, I'm certainly not interested.
Multitasking on the phone is not really useful to me and iOS needs a conceptual redesign, not a UI change.

I will most likely even skip the 7 and I do know a lot of people that switched for the Galaxy S7.
Most people I know need Contacts, Photos, Facebook and WhatsApp.

It might look like iOS is important because this is a Mac / Apple forum.
I believe that most people don't really care and go with the most attractive offer, which includes pricing.

I can test iOS 10 on the latest hardware because of my job, which makes it even easier for me NOT to buy the latest and greatest. From my point of view, declining sales will be happening.

Just look at rose gold, the MacBook and the watch bands, etc.
Apple tries really hard to sell you minor improvements to keep the sales up.

The same goes for the iPad Pro 9,7".

The bias here might be that it's a useful upgrade, most of the people I know own cheap Android based tablets that are lying around at home with empty batteries.

Apple is not doing everything right, wee are just focusing an Apple.
Most people really don't.
 
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spiderman0616 said:
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.
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saba01 said:
Kuo respected? That idiot is manipulating the marked-- again, next week AAPL will publish reports. So its time for traders to make some profit from market movement. Kuo just wants to increase that movement. BUT to use a product, that is not even announced to prove declining sales?? - I think that makes him "respected"..
Click to expand...

Hmm...I'm not so sure it's a coincidence all this iPhone doom and gloom is coming out a few days before earnings. Someone needs to drive the stock price down. We know nothing about the iPhone 7 (if that's even what Apple will call it) but yet this dude knows it's going to be underwhelming and underperform the market? Based on what?

WarHeadz said:
No. Like OLED screen, wireless charging, water resistance, and less bezels late.
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And the iconic and useful home button goes where exactly? Apple's supposed to just shove it on the back because a few tech nerds are obsessed with bezels?
 
jarred125 said:
My 6S is an awesome device and I see no reason to upgrade for a couple years.
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Yes, sure. But did you own the 6? (Honest Q, I'd like to know)
If you did, you might agree that the 6S was not a great upgrade.
[doublepost=1461504674][/doublepost]
WarHeadz said:
No. Like OLED screen, wireless charging, water resistance, and less bezels late.
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Bigger battery late ... Apple could easily put a bigger battery in their phones, but of course they don't want to.
 
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Nothing lasts forever...

What does Apple, or any company, would think they their smart phone would be pulling in the numbers forever ? No, of curse not.. Eventually they die down.

I don't think features will bring people back, It'll prolong it, but not forever...

its going the way of iPad's. And Apple will just need to start accepting that declines of anything is just natural. iPhone's have had a good run....

One point that probably hinted at this was not much of radical changes.... the SE and iPhone 6 shared similar things... and moving forward we'll probably see lots of phones/tablet share similar things as well... probably a more of a hint since there is the guts of a phone is not 100% unique..

Isn't this usually a sign ? Yep.
 
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One big part of the "innovation slowdown" is caused by Apple killing small developers on the app store. Gone are the days when you would pull out your phone to check the app store to see what crazy new ideas someone came up with - ideas no one in middle management at a larger company would risk their desk job to advocate. I know this because I've worked both for those companies (where crazy ideas were 'killed' - only to see someone else hit it out of the park with the same idea), and have also shipped my own apps - including a "first ever" idea in the store = $$$$. Removing discoverability features from the app store has killed small devs - the cost to produce an app now requires a large marketing budget for any chance of success because NO ONE sitting in a cube at Apple will advocate featuring crazy new idea apps from a "nobody" software company.

Also, in the past Apple 'justified' the iPhone's position as the "high-end" smartphone due to having the best apps platform in the market. That enabled the onslaught of apps for the platform - but now for some reason apple wants to limit the number of new apps with the stupid featuring system which is just as mysterious as app approval. As other platforms reach parity with app development capability, the iPhone will just become a higher priced cell phone. Sorry, very few people will pay more money just for a rose gold color phone.
 
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RedOrchestra said:
And that's what brought on the demise of BB - they never paid attention to the rising tide of the competition.
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Good point. Apple, while much bigger than Blackberry ever was, isn't by any means invincible. The bigger they are, the harder they fall.

But I don't think that they will continue to play defense. Until now, they never had to be aggressive, since their sales never stopped growing. But now is a different story!
 
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