iPhone Shipments Suffered Double-Digit Drop Over Holiday Quarter, Says IDC

IsaacM said:
Constantly increasing prices and offering minimal improvements is proving to be a bad business model. Shocker!
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Apple, according to Tom Cook, never saw the target customer of a previous iPhone as a purchaser of a new model iPhone.

So there was more than minimal improvements for my 14PM upgrade.
 
IsaacM said:
Constantly increasing prices and offering minimal improvements is proving to be a bad business model. Shocker!
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I assume you are referring to the smartphone industry in general because Apple's iPhone sales actually dropped less (percentage) than the others. The industry overall saw an 18.3% decline while Apple only had a 14.9% decline and was able to increase its market share for the quarter.
 
contacos said:
The product (smartphone) has sort of reached its peak and there is nothing wrong with that. Previous generations are simply good enough and at those price points nowadays … I am like why should I pay 1,5k Euro for a new iPhone only to go back to literally the same Home Screen, using the exact same Apps the exact same way. It just doesn’t make any sense.

Holding onto my 12 PM at least for another year. They’d have to release a super light iPhone with a new battery technology lasting literally days to get me to upgrade now haha
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I just want a phone with a working camera, that can get decent updates, make calls, txt msg, play some games, GPS, internet, email, and some misc. stuff. I'm on Android, but can't justify spending the $800+ for them high end/flagship phones. Granted, my spending on phones has gone up over my 10-year history... I used to get phones for $200 when they were subsidized. Then get used phones that came out 4 years prior for $200 to $100 (LG G4). $350 Google Pixel 4A, followed by a $500 (after $100 off sale) Pixel 6. I've learned that the $100 to $200 phones were kinda "too inexpensive". $300 to $600 is a good range for tradeoff of not breaking the bank, but also getting the feature and quality I desired.

melliflu said:
Advice against inflation: use your iPhone 5 years, buy better food.
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Heh... I've been doing this for awhile now (well, I'm on Android, but my "cost per year ratio" is still low). If not that, make your own food from time-to-time. All you need are some basic equipment, decent kitchen, some general ingredients, and you can make meals that are cheaper and healthier! I don't like to get bogged down in the kitchen so I still go out to eat, or have frozen foods (which BTW, your advice applies here as well. Spend more for better frozen foods), but doing kitchen stuff has been a nice break from the phone and other computer screens.
 
Delgibbons said:
It’s super handy to switch quickly to the Waze app, for example, or to music. I use it a fair bit. They need to sort the battery life on the 14 pro though it’s shocking. Worse than my 5 year old Samsung s10+
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Hummmm…. Battery life on mine is fine. Doesn’t seem much different that the last few I’ve had. I charge in the evening and it comes off charge before I go to bed. Lasts until the next evening with plenty of reserve. With minimal use I can get 2 days. Seems pretty much unchanged from 13 Pro, 12, 11.
 
Apple hasn’t reported earnings yet, and even when they do, they report total revenue and not units sold. So this is just a guess. All we really know is that the Pro line was backordered for 4-6 weeks for a good part of the quarter, and production was reduced because of lockdowns in China. Based on what we know, they seem to be in a good position.
 
Apple Knowledge Navigator said:
This shouldn’t be viewed as a negative thing. Capitalism is the primary cause of people believing they ‘need’ to upgrade regularly, let alone every year. It would do customers good to realise that they could put their money to better use.
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Couldn't agree more with you. The state of current capitalism that always screams for growth at every quarter with even bigger profit margins is totally out of control. Plus their insane drive to make every human in this planet purchase their products and/or subscribe to their service make them constatly peeking into our privacy in order to push their menacing ads into every corner of our life.

This is dystopian at its finest, really. The only difference between our real dystopia and Hollywood's version is that we don't have mega skyscraper with flying cars and holographic interface everywhere.
 
XXPP said:
Android manufacturers have a problem to sell an android phone for more than €300.
You don't have to worry about Apple.
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I’m not talking about manufacturers, they are different business models, obviously, I’m talking about the value of things. Apple is going to do fine, they can amaze again any day.
 
Something everyone should remember. Within the last half year the China manufacturing plants for the iPhone and other smartphones had shipping issues from the Chinese govt's hard COVID lockdown that impacted their ability to send you the latest iPhones during the holiday season.

This probably is also the reason why Apple chose to delay the M2 Mac mini, Macbook Air & Macbook Pro 13".
 
dantracht said:
When you don’t change that much, what do you expect? People are keeping phones longer and, truth be told, the 14s just weren’t all that exciting. I barley care about the dynamic island already.
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This is industry-wide with apple doing the best in terms of decline

chrome_7PKqo4QCel.png

arstechnica.com

Q4 2022 was a disaster for smartphone sales, sees the largest-ever drop

Phone sales plummeted 18 percent last quarter, 11 percent for the entire year.
arstechnica.com arstechnica.com
 
OriginalBaki said:
That’s what happens when there’s a global recession and Apple decides to increase the price of their products in those markets.
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You may not know that cost of materials that go into Apple products also increases. As does the cost of manufacturing labor.

And...although you may want a less costly iPhone at the expense of Apple employees not getting wage and benefit increases, I am totally on-board with Apple employees seeing an increase.
 
citysnaps said:
You may not know that cost of materials that go into Apple products also increases. As does the cost of manufacturing labor.

And...although you may want a less costly iPhone at the expense of Apple employees not getting wage and benefit increases, I am totally on-board with Apple employees seeing an increase.
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Lol, Apple already ridiculously overcharges for its products which are turning into boring crap. This is a sad take.
 
XXPP said:
How much do you spend on your iPhone if you can't afford food?
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In the US and some states, they can get free phones. Otherwise, you can get phones around $10 to $80.

XXPP said:
I spend several times more on food than I do on my iPhone. I don't understand how buying an iPhone is going to affect my food budget.
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Some people are poor (and if that sounded snarky, that wasn't the intention) An iPhone costs around $500 to 1300. For some, that isn't bad. However, for low income and high CoL folks, trimming that down to let's say a $200 phone, along with making cuts in other areas in your budgets, adds up to enough savings to "make it". If you have a family, multiply iPhone prices by how ever many in your family wants them. That adds up too. I know folks who are doing well off financially, but they are always saving $$ as aggressively as possible, esp. in trying times.
 
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I am fairly confident that Apple will make up for this shortfall in sales in the next quarter, now that Foxconn is back on track and iPhone production has resumed.

I am also puzzled by all the people attributing poor sales to higher iPhone pricing and lacklustre innovation, when we all know that this was due to supply constraints in their China factories. People aren't buying fewer iPhones because of a lack of features; they are buying fewer iPhones because there are fewer iPhones available.

Apple's fundamentals remain solid at the end of the day.
 
Reason077 said:
Apple needs sharper pricing in their mid-range devices. There are always those who will pay the premium for a Pro iPhone, but the standard models are now priced too high and too close to the Pro.
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Well, I guess Tim’s response will be to raise Pro/Ultra prices.
 
one more said:
Well, I use iPhone 12 mini and do not really see any compelling reason to upgrade yet. Not much to do with the money, just no real need as it works just fine. When 12 mini starts acting up, I will most likely replace it with 13 mini, but for now I stay put.
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It’s possible the 13 mini could be discontinued later this year. A refurbished 13 mini could be the only option in 2024 if that happens.
 
AlexJaye said:
Lol, Apple already ridiculously overcharges for its products which are turning into boring crap. This is a sad take.
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No...Apple being a well-run corporation with 164,000 employees with many on overhead, imposes a reasonable 40% GPM on its COGS for all products.

Sounds like you should consider moving to Huawei/Samsung/Sony/LG/etc and find true happiness.
 
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