iPhone X Was One of the Top Three Best-Selling Smartphones in December 2017 Across Five Markets

[gaximus]

X was top 3 in December but production is being cut in half do to weak demand? Something doesn’t pass the smell test.

Say Apple sells a million iPhones a month, and that puts them in the top three. But they are manufacturing two million a month. The now need to cut production in half due to weak demand. They expected more sales but it still put them in 3rd place.

The numbers I used in the example are just made up. I have no idea what they actually are.

 

[Dave245]

I love my iPhone 7 Plus 256GB, paying $10/mo. It's easily the best phone for the money. I don't miss FaceID, and love the home button. After a month or two, the OLED display's brilliance would wear off and I wouldn't really care that much about it. The iPhone 7 display is beautiful to me. I woudn't care whether a movie is HDR or not. It's such a tiny display being watched in less than ideal situations. If I bought an X, what i would miss is the $1000 in my bank account!
[doublepost=1517328995][/doublepost]

Good job! Hilarious!

That’s why Apple also announced the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus. The iPhone X is a great device but it’s not for everyone, if you’re going to miss the £1000 it’s not worth getting.

 

[npmacuser5]

Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics!

 

[wigby]

I regret my X purchase. Simply because I don't think it's worth the $1000. Face-ID is carp and don't work most time. It needs refinement.

I agree that $1000 is too much but I'm also surprised at how well my Face ID works. It works when I wake up and have only one eye open and always works the 2nd time if it misses the first scan because of bright sunlight or off angles. They only need to speed it up so that it matches speed of 2nd gen Touch ID.

 

[Rogifan]

Say Apple sells a million iPhones a month, and that puts them in the top three. But they are manufacturing two million a month. The now need to cut production in half due to weak demand. They expected more sales but it still put them in 3rd place.

The numbers I used in the example are just made up. I have no idea what they actually are.

If Apple is selling a million a month and making top 3 where is the weak demand? Calendar flips to 2018 and all of a sudden no one wants an X? Nonsense.

 

[Chupa Chupa]

Yet you still kept it despite Apple's generous return policy. Why?

You are making the assumption OP bought his from Apple. If he bought it from a carrier the return policy isn't necessarily so generous. Some even have restock fees and/or make returns not easy. But even if he did buy it from Apple, and during the holiday return policy, coming to hate how a product works sometimes takes weeks while you give it chances or used to it. I can't speak for OP, and personally, I like my iPhone X and Face ID. I can see why that love wouldn't be universal though. I read OP as saying he NOW regrets it and WOULD return it if he could turn back the clock. Hindsight for many of us morals is 20/20.

 

[frozen220]

If that’s your experience I’d contact support. Face ID has failed for me when I was actually looking at it maybe 5 times in the past (almost) 3 months.

While I've never considered it "Awful," I did notice that it's accuracy has improved greatly with the latest iOS update, so much so that I'd say it works really well now.

 

[Voidmoji]

You notch lovers act like you're part of some enlightened audience, and everyone who doesn't agree with you is just a "hater." The real world isn't like that, and this situation is definitely part of the real world.

Notch...lovers? Are there such a thing?

I have an iPhone X. About the only time the notch enters my consciousness these days is when I read forum posts about it.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

If Apple is selling a million a month and making top 3 where is the weak demand? Calendar flips to 2018 and all of a sudden no one wants an X? Nonsense.

Apparently Apple themselves see weaker demand. The 50% cut in the story was about Apple cutting their orders.

Are you trying to say that Apple is wrong to cut their own orders because they sold a lot of units in the past? I'm thinking Apple knows more about demand than you- or I- do. They can actually see how many orders are coming in every day and adjust their future orders accordingly. No need making too many if the current demand is not showing they'll likely sell so many... even if they had higher demand in the recent past.

Extreme Example: If Apple sold EVERYONE an X in the last quarter, there would be no one else to sell in the next quarter. The pattern of everyone buying one wouldn't automatically carry forward with a calendar flip. Apple would cut new orders to zero and that would make perfect sense in that scenario... except, apparently, to you... who, apparently, would look at about 7B unit sales in the last quarter to mean Apple should make at least 7B more in this next quarter because demand should persist into the future exactly as it was in the past.

OR apparently, you would spin the cut to zero orders as evil market manipulators plotting against AAPL without considering maybe it really is Apple just revising their orders down to fit with lower-than-expected demand in the future. Tons of companies do that all the time. Much better to revise orders down to fit evolving demand than keep making too many for demand and end up with a bunch of inventory.

Some sense of the truth will be revealed soon. Apple will have to roll out their forecast rather than just lean on the quality of the holiday quarter. If the forecast is good to great, this particular story might mean they found other suppliers, or other Apple stuff sold so well that it made up for the shortfall on expected X sales. If the forecast is poor, apparently the rumor mill sometimes gets accurate rumors, and investors not married to any single stock were able to take action as soon as possible rather than waiting & hoping that rumors are just wrong rumors... or just wrong only when they imply something negative about a single stock.

 

[deanthedev]

Isn't this something we've pretty much always known? We know profit margin. We know the ASP. We know pretty much everything we need to know. It's going to be the same this quarter, the next, and the successive ones after that.

Do you think there's someone out there who doesn't know this? I'm not exactly sure what this hypothetical report would do besides provide confirmation bias to those who like to think of Apple as the best of something.

Given the large number of posts from people showing overall Android vs iOS market share or overall Samsung sales vs iPhone sales, then I’d say there are a LOT of people who don’t know this.

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

Here we go again. The implied bad is suspect/stock manipulation/sleaze. But hey look at China (good)- that part is absolutely true. Why is the good so readily accepted as factual and the bad suspect/conspiracy/manipulation? That's a rhetorical question- I know already... just like patents and/or the patent system is broken and needs reformed when some patent is working against Apple but fine for protecting intellectual capital when it works for Apple.



Yes, but that seems like a make lemons-into-lemonade spin answer. Here's why: if those production cut orders are true, it's Apple that had the higher orders in place and only Apple that cut the orders in half. It's not stock manipulators putting in orders too high and Apple correcting them. So Apple had projected orders of X and then Apple was adjusting orders down to X/2. There's no other players in that equation to be manipulating the order volume. The suppliers- if anything- are motivated to puff up the order volume to please their shareholders. They have no reason to manipulate their order volume down and make their own forecasts look bad.

As to "but don't orders get cut every year" to imply after the robust holiday orders will be lower. Of course, orders will be lower after the holiday quarter- THAT IS NORMAL. But this is not cutting X down from a comparison with orders to build enough for holiday-season sales. This is cutting orders for post holiday production. In other words, this is not, "we needed to produce 60 units for the busy holiday season and now need to produce only 30 units for the quarter after the holiday season." This is "we had forecasted we would need to produce 30 for the new quarter but we only need to produce 15."

More simply: we keep trying to spin this as normal because orders get cut every year after the holiday season. However, if that's the case, why does Apple keep making the same mistake every year of having too many ordered after the holiday season? Isn't Apple smart enough to know they'll sell less units after the holiday season? Assuming so, they could have better forecasted their orders and avoided the implied bad news already by learning this over 10 holiday seasons and not over-ordering after the holiday season such that they have to formally cut orders.

We're pointing out that this happens every year but not realizing that makes it look like Apple can't notice that and fix the mistake of over-ordering every year. Each time we try to spin that as normal, we're basically calling the supply-chain king stupid for not being able to anticipate that orders will be less after the holiday quarter. Our lemonade (spin) is sour if we can't see that.

I don’t see production forecasting that simply. The X was hyped for a long time before Apple ever introduced it. It is a new model in the iPhone line. It was also a new price point. Apple had to forecast production based on speculation of this hype, as it takes a long time to get production lines up and suppliers lined out—long before product is officially revealed. They may be pretty good at anticipating demand, but they still don’t have a crystal ball. They appear to have maxed-out production of the X last year, likely in case demand exceeded expectations, so they wouldn’t lose a sale during the holiday season. Post-holiday manufacturing adjustments are likely a much better time to right-size their inventory, as the holiday shopping season is very unpredictable. Selling as many X’s as they expected is not necessarily the same as the number of X’s they produced. Keep in mind that the last time Apple introduced a new form factor (iPhone 6), demand exceeded production.

Had both, would say they are both on par with each other. People here, would have you believe that iOS > Android, and vise versa on an Android site. I feel, one should use what ever OS meets their needs. Personally, never used Android, but hear great things about it. Also, iOS is getting a bit long in the tooth, but that's just me.

At the OS level, there are certainly pros and cons to both, but from my own experience, I find the third party iOS apps get more attention and refinement than their Android counterparts. One of the main reasons I’m on iOS today.

 

[coolbreeze]

Given the market share of Android, Peloton still doesn't have an Android app. And BMW arrogantly assumes all it's owners use iOS.

ok

 

[69Mustang]

Given the large number of posts from people showing overall Android vs iOS market share or overall Samsung sales vs iPhone sales, then I’d say there are a LOT of people who don’t know this.

Forgive me, but aren't those posts usually related specifically to articles that are discussing Android vs iOS market share or iPhone vs other OEM's? Meaning those posts are pretty much on topic. That does not mean people don't know Apple is the king of the high end mobile market. It simply means that subject (Apple being king) isn't the topic being discussed. It in no way implies there are a lot of people who don't know Apple leads at the high end.

I'm curious though. Suppose we did get that report. The one that says Apple sales in the higher end of the mobile market far exceeds the sales of any other brand. They also lead in the categories of margin and ASP. Suppose we did.

Then what?

 

[44267547]

Notch...lovers? Are there such a thing?

I have an iPhone X. About the only time the notch enters my consciousness these days is when I read forum posts about it.

Tech forums are A place to vent and complain about issues that sometimes are never issues, they are just personal preferences others don't approve of, like the Notch for example. Most times in the outside world, I rarely if ever, have heard anyone complain of the Notch. It's just more concentrated on here.

 

[macs4nw]

I swear that is only said by people who don't have the damn phone.

Now that would make total sense

 

[deanthedev]

Forgive me, but aren't those posts usually related specifically to articles that are discussing Android vs iOS market share or iPhone vs other OEM's? Meaning those posts are pretty much on topic. That does not mean people don't know Apple is the king of the high end mobile market. It simply means that subject (Apple being king) isn't the topic being discussed. It in no way implies there are a lot of people who don't know Apple leads at the high end.

I'm curious though. Suppose we did get that report. The one that says Apple sales in the higher end of the mobile market far exceeds the sales of any other brand. They also lead in the categories of margin and ASP. Suppose we did.

Then what?

I see the market share card played regularly in numerous threads, not only ones specifically about market share. Which backs my claim people don’t understand it’s a meaningless statistic. Are you claiming those comments are strictly confined only to actual articles like this one?

 

[plexdk]

one brand but multiple models.

Yeah vs multiple brands.... with multiple cheaper models

 

[AppleScruff1]

If Apple is selling a million a month and making top 3 where is the weak demand? Calendar flips to 2018 and all of a sudden no one wants an X? Nonsense.

The demand is less than Apple expected even though it outsold every other phone. It may still be #1 in sales even with a 50% cut in production. Apple thought they would sell 40 million, now they think they will sell 20 million, still far more than any other phone.

 

[sblemmy]

Who's still buying Windows phones?

 

[deanthedev]

Given the market share of Android, Peloton still doesn't have an Android app. And BMW arrogantly assumes all it's owners use iOS.

ok

Without knowing what studies companies have done regarding their user base you can’t complain about the lack of support for a particular platform.

BMW sells high end cars. iPhone dominates high end phone sales. If BMW decided to only support one platform (odd decision, but let’s say they did) then CarPlay is the logical choice. If they decided to support both, then it’s also logical for them to do CarPlay first.

 

[dampfnudel]

I'm surprised iOS is doing so badly with our European neighbours across the Channel. Didn't think it'd be that bad tbh.

Only decent stat for Apple is China growth

Not really surprised with Europe, Apple really brings out the price sensitivity out of many Europeans with their latest offerings. The US and UK are definitely Apple’s sweethearts when it comes to iOS market penetration. Every other country is solidly in Android’s camp and will probably remain so for good given current circumstances. Looks like a iOS device in Spain is the equivalent of a unicorn.

 

[T-Will]

I regret my X purchase. Simply because I don't think it's worth the $1000. Face-ID is carp and don't work most time. It needs refinement.

My experience is the opposite, Face ID seems to be more reliable and seamless than Touch ID.

 

[Dan Holmstock]

Android is McDonalds while iOS is Five Guys.

Maybe Burger king, since Android and Burger king share the same philosophy - "have it your way".

 

[StevieD100]

Not really surprised with Europe, Apple really brings out the price sensitivity out of many Europeans with their latest offerings. The US and UK are definitely Apple’s sweethearts when it comes to iOS market penetration. Every other country is solidly in Android’s camp and will probably remain so for good given current circumstances. Looks like a iOS device in Spain is the equivalent of a unicorn.

Despite the price advantage of an Android phone, I will never sell my soul to Google.
I don't want the stuff I do reported to them so that they can sell it to the highest bidder. The only android I'd buy would be a Blackberry.
My iPhone does everything I want it to (iPhone 7). Can't say better than that.
If people want to sell their souls then fine by me.

 

[69Mustang]

I see the market share card played regularly in numerous threads, not only ones specifically about market share. Which backs my claim people don’t understand it’s a meaningless statistic. Are you claiming those comments are strictly confined only to actual articles like this one?

Of course I'm not claiming that. It's why I use words like usually, primarily, etc. I try not to deal in absolutes.

To your claim above, you do the exact same thing. Am I to assume that, because your response to almost any market share thread is to ignore the topic and go off on a tangent about Apple's superiority elsewhere, you don't know about Android's market share domination? Of course I wouldn't assume that, but you're positing that others don't know about Apple's high end domination because they choose to talk about other aspects of the market. You don't see the irony there?

Also, you never answered my question. Say you get the report that you want to see. Then what?