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iPhone Drops to 15% Market Share as Smartphone Market Goes Flat
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Doesn't everyone who want an iPhone have one at this point? As someone who was on that yrly upgrade bandwagon, I finally stopped at the 4.7. I was salty when the insurance replaced my phone with the 5s because the only change I really wanted was a bigger screen. So now that I have a fully paid off 6s, I have zero desire to upgrade - especially since I think IOS and the camera are getting worse and worse.
K.
Proved nothing here except a few likes from iDiots. The market is oversaturated. I don't know why you are comparing Apple losing profit and sales to Samsung junk phones. Enlighten me.
Apple is in trouble. Face it and live with it. Nothing lasts forever. Did The Beatles last forever? Did the Roman Empire? But this isn't just an Apple thing. All smartphones are hitting a plateau. But it should be concerning because iPhones is Apple's biggest moneymakers. Not iPads, MacBooks, or Apple Watches. Their services are still restrictive and less popular than Google's. Every well dries up.
I don't get the headline . . . all other companies saw gains, so why is the market flat? Because Apple lost market share?
No, it's "your" reality, a small but none the less important salient detail...
What's "better" is highly subjective. I don't like Android that much. It's more vulnerable for viruses and I simply don't like the interface. Also terminology like "Faster, Better, Smoother" together with "experiences" are, in this context, an in the eye of the beholder story.
Next is privacy, I don't like how Google and Microsoft are both digging into your mails, calendar's, photo's etc. The so called "free" OS comes with a prize, that also counts for Windows 10 which I use on daily basis for work, but most of the time I prefer using OSX for that matter.
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Seriously? It's for the first time since 2003 that Apple doesn't breaks their sale records..... and something is wrong???
They still made $10.5 billion profit. Nobody will state that Apple can't go bankrupt. I cas asure you that Apple is far from being bankrupt with the amount of cash the company has, still the richest company in the world, and the profit it's makes; $10.5 billion is not below zero...
I think Apple didn't had much choice then to do what it's been doing right now. Of course, Apple can't build an entire company based on just an iPhone. Apple came up with the Apple Watch, which, I admit, wasn't that much of a success. But it's working on a car as well and, perhaps even more significant, it's building up their own cloud.
And finally, Apple made more profit from the App store then from selling iPhones...
My point, I'm not stating Apple can't do wrong business-wise as well as making bad decisions, and yes the company has made many questionable decisions... but between from where Apple is standing now until the point of being bankrupt lays down a long path...
Apple has, for sure, years and years trying to boost it's profits.
If Apple is loosing ground, even after launching the iPhone 8 and when the Apple car doesn't live up to the expectations and Apple's other products seems to fail in sales year after year for the next two years then yes, then one is entitled to state that something went "wrong" i.m.h.o
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Facebook (whose users are getting disinterested - at least the younger ones) is the little media darling because they beat estimates.
Apples' Mac sales ALONE beat Facebook in revenue.
Apple beat estimates in most categories, just not revenue.
Time to get some new estimators.
Apples' Mac sales ALONE beat Facebook in revenue.
Apple beat estimates in most categories, just not revenue.
Time to get some new estimators.
It's time for a price cut on the iphone, The competition has caught up and in some cases surpassed Apple. They are getting beaten on almost every front, the only thing they have going for them is the brand cache. That is starting to erode as well, now that people are seeing how ridiculously expensive these devices have been.
It was not a big deal to spend $200 every 2 years on a new phone, but having to make constant payments or spend $650 every 2 years is crazy. Especially for a device that is only marginally better than the one you currently have.
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It's not that this is a bad quarter, but it is the beginning of a trend that is why investors are spooked. They don't see anything over the horizon except for more storms. Iphone 7 looks to be a minor refresh, watch has been a disappointment, computers are stale. There is nothing coming up that will bring in new revenue. The next 2 quarters will be telling, if sales continue on a downward path the stock will take a beating.
Sounds like only an issue investors should care about and not the rest of us who use and depend on the products. Very happy with all my Apple stuff. Great products. Couldn't care less if they make 50 billion a quarter as opposed to 53 billion.
Again confusion between "shipped" ( Samsung ) and "sold" ( Apple ).
You cannot compare the two - maybe Samsung is only selling 50% of the shipped phones - who knows.
And Apple is not posting the shipped volumes.
Way to go for a "research" firm. Internet wisdom at its best.
You cannot compare the two - maybe Samsung is only selling 50% of the shipped phones - who knows.
And Apple is not posting the shipped volumes.
Way to go for a "research" firm. Internet wisdom at its best.
Apple does not give volume of "Sold". These numbers are channel numbers and account only for devices that have been sold from Apple to channel distributors. So while these maybe counted as "sold", this doesn't include inventory sitting on store shelves.
Neither Samsung nor Apple truly and accurately report volume numbers in any of their categories.
Is an issue for sure. There are no real new markets for Apple to move into. Now, can they evolve to compete in established markets and grow their market share while maintaining or growing profits? That will be the challenge and I am doubtful the Tim and staff are up to the challenge. I would love to be proven wrong.
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The areas for new market growth have pretty much disappeared. aka ... flat.
See my above reply... Can Apple do it?
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No, there is one significant market left for Apple to grow into, one in which Android has been dominating for years. And that's the low-end market.
The SE seems to be exactly what Apple has said for years they wouldn't do, and that's compete on the low end. And I personally expect to see the SE price drop even lower as Apple maintains strong margins on it. The difference now is that Apple is offering a quality product for a low-end price that protects its margins. The one compromise seems to be in the area of design, perpetuating a 3 year old design ... but that's not necessarily a sign of eroding quality. Some might even call the SE "classic". Unlike the 5c, the SE has this years processor, and major features, yet they're selling it for less than the 3 year old 5s it replaces. That's significant toward Apple being able to compete on the low end with cheap Android makers. I doubt they will ever be able to get that low, but as long as the iPhone remains affordably aspirational in the under $400 range, Apple does have a huge new market to expand their growth into. So now, the only question is: how low can they go?
Doubt it. This is something Apple said it won't do and I don't see the SE as being a step into that territory.
This would entail it dropping it's margins and looking to volume in that space to compete.
Could they? Yes. Will they is the question. The SE is in my mind a stop-gap.
btw - the SE costs more than the Nexus 6P I am currently testing on FI. The 6P is a flagship level device. The SE? Not even close.
That's a bit too general. Yes, this describes me, but not all investors. I know people who bought some big names all the way down back in 2000-2003. Some of them are still not sunning themselves on the French Riviera, for all their vaunted intelligence.
The problem is the iPhone really is a low to mid range phone now, screen tech from the stone age, bezels that look like a relic from 2008, 16 gig base storage, an OS that would be better on a feature phone than a smartphone, and the hundreds of other things mentioned in this thread.
You're right they should lower the price to reflect that, but why are they unable to offer a premium phone anymore. If they just lower the price, they'll be a mediocre company selling a very small range of mediocre products. At least in Samsung or LG's case, phones are a minor blip on their balance sheets.
What I find funny and sad at the same time is all the people who brag about all the profits Apple is currently making. As a customer, why do I want more of the money I pay for the phone to go to the manufacturer's profit? Their profit margin being higher is not good for anyone but Apple. All Apple is doing is making a second rate phone at a premium price tag. They can do it now when they have the good rep, but they're blowing their rep. Short term it's bigger profits, long term, they're ruining their goodwill and reputation.
Apple's "low end" is still $400.
Meanwhile... there are Android phones being sold around the world that retail for $100.
The average selling price for an Android phone is $215... so there's no wonder why they sell in huge volumes and thus have more market share.
ASP for Apple's iPhone is around $670... thus they sell fewer units which makes their market share less.
So doing a strict "units to units" comparison doesn't really tell the whole story. Unfortunately... that's how market share is calculated. All "units" are the same.
But if two $100 smartphones get sold for every one $650 iPhone... you can't say that Apple's is doing half as well.
There's gotta be a better metric.
While Apple is a member of the broader smartphone market... they don't sell products across the entire market.
It never made sense to include Apple on the same list as smartphone OEMs who sell $100 phones. Nor does it make sense to put Apple on the same list as OEMs who sell $400 laptops.
But again... that's how market share is calculated. One $400 HP Pavilion laptop gets counted the same as one $1,200 Apple Macbook.
Technically that's the correct way to count it... but you can't learn much from market share numbers without also considering which part of the market each company resides in.
I have no problem with a comparison between HP and Dell. They both have similar product lines across a wide range of prices. They both sell laptops from $249 all the way up to multiple thousands.
And then there's Apple... whose laptops start at $900. That's a big difference.
Apple is playing a different game than everyone else... but that is never taken into consideration. The headlines talk about units and units alone.
And it's the same in smartphones. Samsung sells more "units" than Apple... but no one ever talks about what those units are.
Are they mostly $140 Galaxy J3 or similar models? Or are they mostly $800 Galaxy S7 Edge models?
We'll never know... (but my gut feeling is that it's leaning more towards the former)
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Good to know Apple finally did what others were doing three years ago. I complet of forgot about the 6s specs because it was a next to nothing upgrade. Thanks for correcting me.
You're welcome. The iPhone 6 also came in 16, 64, and 128 GB storage configurations, by the way.
What would cause us consumers to ignore those obvious faults and hefty price tag? Ignorance? Stupidity?
It did? I got the 128 and never looked at the other options. Now that you mention it, I debated the 64. It wasn't big enough. So I guess they're still behind the curve with regards to pricing but not as much as I originally thought, but they're still in the dark ages as far as entry level (16) goes.
Belief in the brand.
Distrust of MS which led to adoption of Apple which led to...
Early severe issues with Android.
Peer pressure.
Family uses them.
An accepted BYOD device.
etc...
Apple started with a great idea, placed it into practice, and convinced the world it was worth it.
It was. Now that the gild has tarnished and become worn, what is Apple's next step?
That will be the deciding item. Not profit. Not volume.
I suspect that if the Apple Watch had become the "Next Big Thing" as it was initially envisioned, we would not be having this discussion.
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We have different value systems across the board?
An Altima 3.5 can give a 328i a run for its money, yet I don't see bmw going out of business, because a car that costs less can be faster. I would rather own the more expensive car, just like I would rather own the more expensive phone.
i just feel at 50000 feet it's the better choice for me and my family.