Foxconn Reports First Ever Profit Decline on Back of Slow iPhone Sales in 2016

[freepomme]

They tried to sell a phone without a headphone jack, and tried to replace it with an inferior Bluetooth headphone with poor battery life. I told Apple, literally, "I'm not buying that!"

I would be very interested in the iPhone 7 being the worst selling iPhone in history. I would be happy about that.

So when I read about these profit declines with this iPhone 7, I was happy. I want to see this phone fail. I don't like the iPhone 7.

Apple needs to learn that that was a dumb decision no matter how they want to slice it or dice it. That was dumb.

 

[Grolubao]

There's just no compelling reasons to upgrade from iPhone 6. So much that in fact I just switched my battery fro £25 and I have a brand new phone, no need to spend several hundred £ for the 7

 

[The Game 161]

Dont see a surprise. Apple is not hungry anymore, If they don't come hard this year its over. look at amazon and google. The Alexa is killing Siri.

it's over? what is? apple are still crushing the comp in overall sales and as long as that happens they aren't going to be in trouble.

 

[freepomme]

There's just no compelling reasons to upgrade from iPhone 6. So much that in fact I just switched my battery fro £25 and I have a brand new phone, no need to spend several hundred £ for the 7

Amen! Say that!

 

[freepomme]

We need Apple to fail at something. Somebody has got to wake them up. Somebody needs to give them a wake-up call. They're slacking! And when you tell Apple about these profit declines with this iPhone 7, all they're going to do is say that the iPhone has reached saturation. That's what they'll say! But that's not what it is and we know this.

 

[The Game 161]

They tried to sell a phone without a headphone jack, and tried to replace it with an inferior Bluetooth headphone with poor battery life. I told Apple, literally, "I'm not buying that!"

I would be very interested in the iPhone 7 being the worst selling iPhone in history. I would be happy about that.

So when I read about these profit declines with this iPhone 7, I was happy. I want to see this phone fail. I don't like the iPhone 7.

Apple needs to learn that that was a dumb decision no matter how they want to slice it or dice it. That was dumb.

5 hours on one charge and 24 hours is considered poor battery life? funny

dumb decision to remove the headphone jack? hardly..the future is wireless and even samsung are heading in this direction

 

[freepomme]

5 hours on one charge and 24 hours is considered poor battery life? funny

dumb decision to remove the headphone jack? hardly..the future is wireless and even samsung are heading in this direction

It's not enough!

 

[lordofthereef]

Except stupidity

Sure does. Natural selection takes it from there.

 

[The Game 161]

It's not enough!

it's more than enough. my air pods can last a good 4-5 days on one charge.

 

[Popeye206]

Hummm... I feel like MacRumors has turned into AppleBashers.

I'll be the first to say I wish they would have done XY or Z over the past years. I too scratch my head over technologies like Siri not maturing as fast as competitors... but I still think overall, Apple has one of the best solutions out there when you consider everything.

But... it sure would be nice to see some fire burning in Cupertino. Maybe this will be the year? Crossing my fingers.

 

[typographer]

Apple, we need another new user experience rather than a new iPhone.

 

[Tech198]

I reckon its been done to death.. I mean we're talking about 9 year old phone here. Now, all it it, is building blocks of features.

At one stage, the wall must tumble down.

 

[Munibeast]

no headphone jack = fail

 

[69650]

Hummm... I feel like MacRumors has turned into AppleBashers.

I'll be the first to say I wish they would have done XY or Z over the past years. I too scratch my head over technologies like Siri not maturing as fast as competitors... but I still think overall, Apple has one of the best solutions out there when you consider everything.

But... it sure would be nice to see some fire burning in Cupertino. Maybe this will be the year? Crossing my fingers.

We're all Apple customers so the proliferation of negative comments is a sign of just how unhappy many Apple users are right now. High prices, poor quality, frequent problems and a general lack of hardware updates.

 

[Col4bin]

No, more emoji!!!!
-- Tim Cook

No, more Watch bands!!!!
-- (said) no one

 

[compete12]

10 years ago when nobody had an iPhone the most expensive one was $499.
Now that they've sold over a billion of them, it's $849.

2008 Macbook
2009 iMac
iPhone 6 Plus

None are getting replaced until they completely die.

 

[TBN27]

Apple need to justify the constant price increases.

The 7 is a really good phone but compare it to the OnePlus 3T (in fact, compare the 7, S7, Pixel, all these high priced phones) and suddenly "value for money" becomes an issue.

I say where the value lies is support (OS updates, etc.) it may not be and feature rich or super customizable but it's more likely to last longer.

 

[Mac4Brains]

Well Duh. Perhaps they should of listened to all the people that said that removing the headphone jack was a dumb idea.

 

[The Game 161]

Well Duh. Perhaps they should of listened to all the people that said that removing the headphone jack was a dumb idea.

Please

Sales has nothing to do with the removable of headphone jack. Soon it will disappear from every company.

Wireless is the way forward. The sooner people realise that the better. Wires are nothing more than annoying that get in your way.

 

[jaymie1983]

Apple will see everyone else suffer before they take a hit

 

[thespacekid]

Doesn't Foxcon make other devices besides the iPhone? While the iPhone might be a part of the cause, I doubt it's the only cause.

 

[Munibeast]

Wireless isn't the future, it's the present. And so is the headphone jack. Both will co-exist in the future. It's not either this or that. I'm absolutely sure the removed headphone jack didn't have a positive effect on sales.

 

[Mildredop]

"saturated smartphone market"

I'd be interested to know how many iPhone sales each year are to people who have never before owned a smartphone.

Whilst the smartphone market is saturated, there are still many hundreds of millions of handsets being sold each year. I personally don't think many iPhone 5, 5s, 6 and 6s phones would have been sold to smartphone virgins, so I don't believe market saturation is the reason for the lukewarm sales.

I think it's because Apple designed a phone that people don't want to buy. Many iPhone 7 sales (like my wife's) would have been due to necessity (upgrade cycle, old iPhone on its last legs etc) but many sales would have fallen through due to Apple's design choices.

I don't own an iPhone but I'm very aware of people around me discussing the lack of headphone jack and the issues of charging/listening to music.

My wife has always been iPhone and a couple of days ago made a long journey but couldn't listen to podcasts in the car because she needed to keep her phone plugged in for Google Maps. Today she asked several questions about the Google Pixel and asked to have a play with my S7.

There are still millions and millions of people out there buying smartphones. Market saturation is not the reason the iPhone sales are not as strong as they could be.

 

[Carnegie]

To be clear, the report from the Nikkei Asian Review which the OP refers and links to does not attribute the fall in Foxconn revenues to lukewarm demand for the iPhone 7 as the OP suggests that it does. It attributes it to lukewarm demand from Apple (and the saturated smartphone market). In this context there's a significant difference, in part because the iPhone 7 wouldn't have been the main iPhone being produce for much of 2016.

If you look at the monthly numbers, Foxconn's revenue was off about $4 billion from January through July of 2016 and only about $2 million from August through December of 2016. In other words, almost all of the revenue decline came from a time when the compare (for the basis of much of Foxconn's revenue, though of course not all of it) would have been between the iPhone 6S and the iPhone 6 more so than between the iPhone 7 and the iPhone 6S.
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Doesn't Foxcon make other devices besides the iPhone? While the iPhone might be a part of the cause, I doubt it's the only cause.

I think that's right, the revenue decline for the year was likely due to Apple and Foxconn's other customers. When Foxconn files its annual report in a few months we'll get more detailed numbers and will likely be able to say with more confidence. But for just the first quarter of 2016 Apple accounted for a little over half of Foxconn's revenue decline of about $1.76 billion. The portion of Foxconn's revenue decline attributable to Apple was roughly equal to the portion of Foxconn's revenue attributable to Apple for the quarter.

 

[jujufreeze]

Smartphone market saturation has been reached. without Apple's former spirit of innovation and 'magic' there is less demand for a new $1000 phone every year that is slightly thinner and faster.