more expensive and weaker than the standard iPhone?
and a way for apple to keep rising prices?
makes more sense now.
and a way for apple to keep rising prices?
makes more sense now.
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Next Year's Slim iPhone 17 Could Be an 'iPhone Air'
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Is that your desire or reality? Given the market landscape, do you really think selling the same iPhone but cheaper is what Apple needs (= it’s profitable)? I’d say what Apple needs (and has worked many times in the past) is precisely a much better iPhone with a higher price tag. The problem is that making such leap-forward phones is increasingly difficult.
anything to hike prices.
wouldn't be surprised if the air is $1,000 and they raise the price of the Pro a bit to separate it and make it more "pro"
then we'll get an iPhone Ultra above the pro max lol
Ultra Fast. Ultra Light.
I wouldn’t say they are nearly as thin. An iPhone 15 Pro Max is already quite thick (8,3 mm) for its area, those phones are around 10 mm.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
As a consumer, I neither care what Apple needs nor was I talking about what Apple needs. I referenced the market (not the stock market) but the market that buys Apple products. If my preoccupation was to service Apple's needs, I'd be slinging higher profits, more high-margin dongles, thinking about what else could be ejected out to an accessory item without cutting the price, etc.
What's happening in the world is competitor phones- copying Apple or not- are catching up. But competitors don't demand near 50% margins. People needing a new phone may very much want iPhone but the pricing relative to similar looking and functioning phones is just beyond 'Apples & Oranges' different. So many people buy competitor phones.
Apple market share ticks down. They "need something" to stir up more interest. Rather than hit the real problem head on, they opt for "thinner" or colors or other gimmicks. Cutting margin even back towards traditional norms for Apple seems very, very last resort... which then feeds into shrinking market share.
I don't care if they cut margin or not- just commenting on the story. I'm not thinking "thinner" is some big volume-moving answer here... unless it's going to come with slimmer margins so that retail price can offer an iPhone at a more competitive price with copycat phones priced farrrrrrrr lower.
Yes. What has worked in the past is tech leaps. That yields obvious differentiation and thus somewhat rationalizes paying up for some differences. Since those kind of ideas have thinned out, copycats have adopted much of Apple's goodies and then innovated ahead of iPhone in various ways... while still offering much lower prices (because many don't demand near 50% margin).
My guess is that iPhone market share keeps shrinking- slim model release or not- but "who makes the most profitable phone?" is the contest Apple will keep winning by selling (relatively) fewer and fewer overall phones at higher & higher prices. And much like Mac vs. PC, while the former may be arguably better than the latter in many ways, it is relatively niche for the very same reason. iPhone will probably end up being like Mac vs. PC: really popular to a small segment willing to pay way up for it while the bulk of the world goes Android like the bulk of the world went Windows.
Repeat the past or learn from it.
People said the same thing about the original MacBook Air and iPad Air, but it turns out that many people care very much about thinner products. If this is as described, it’s probably the model I would choose, and I suspect I’m not alone.
Agreed. Remember the collective groan when iPhone X was announced at $999?
I mean, do they? Isn't the whole point that the Plus and Mini sold poorly and Apple hasn't been able to come up with a "fourth option" that sells as well as the others? I don't think they'd keep changing what the fourth option was if they considered it a success. Maybe they'll really knock it out of the park this time with the iPhone Air. But so far, they haven't come up with a "killer" fourth iPhone model. I don't think it's unreasonable to be skeptical. Personally, I hope it succeeds, because I'm one of those people who thinks the Pro models have gotten a bit thick and heavy and would like to see them slimmed down. This could be the beginning of that trend.
Wireless charging with the glass back has turned all recent iPhones into tanks. Too heavy, too thick.
Go back to an all aluminum body and get rid of wireless charging and they’ll have a winner.
Go back to an all aluminum body and get rid of wireless charging and they’ll have a winner.
“iPhone Air - it’s our thinnest iPhone ever… but rest assured our profit margins for it won’t be… and we think you’re going to love it!”
- Tim
- Tim
Apples line up makes little sense to me. Just consolidate.
Why are we still selling older iPhones alongside the new ones. Get rid of the last year models.
IPhone SE/iPhone base(merge the se and base/plus)- $599
Iphone air- the higher end but smaller premium version of the pro. ($899)
iPhone air pro- the highest of all end starting at 1199)
Having to explain last year or two years ago models or why the SE looks like an iPhone 8 but really is a 13 or the differences in base, plus, pro and pro max is just too much
Why are we still selling older iPhones alongside the new ones. Get rid of the last year models.
IPhone SE/iPhone base(merge the se and base/plus)- $599
Iphone air- the higher end but smaller premium version of the pro. ($899)
iPhone air pro- the highest of all end starting at 1199)
Having to explain last year or two years ago models or why the SE looks like an iPhone 8 but really is a 13 or the differences in base, plus, pro and pro max is just too much
Apple Cloud? It worked with Apple Watch, Apple Pencil, Apple Account, Apple TV, Apple Intelligence, …
The 5 mm M4 iPad Pro is robust enough, and the iPhone Slim will hardly be thinner.
Except your entire point falls apart when you start introducing actual iPhones that were failures.
5C, Mini series, and (apparently) the plus as well.
So no, it is absolutely not a certainty that a folding iPhone will grab the attention of the apple fanbase.
Also, before the iPhone 6, the most requested feature was LITERALLY A BIGGER SCREEN!
Sure, there was a small minority who absolutely wanted Apple to stick to the tiny phones, no matter what, but they were a minority.
The proof is in the pudding, as soon as they added bigger screens to iPhone they literally had their most successful year of sales in 2014, and they still haven’t been able to top that.
The iPhone 6 and 6+ are still to this day the best selling iPhones.
But I get it, the “Apple could release a brick with their logo on it and people would buy it” is fun. It’s a fun narrative. But it’s not true.
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The Slim rumor came out of the display supply chains, among others. They would know if it’s a foldable, because those use different display panels than nonfoldables.
More than a few people want a lighter phone, and a thinner phone could deliver that. Though maybe not at 6.6”.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
We’re remembering history of pre-phablet iPhone collective sentiment differently but that’s OK:anyone wanting to judge for themselves could go dig into history here and see how “we” felt… and then how that flipped right with Apples adoption of phablet sizes.
As to wrong or right about an iPhone Fold, we’ll see… I believe it will come and many who are on record as hating folds and “solution in search of a problem”, etc, will magically flip flip. Feel free to mark this post and come back with an “I told you so” if it doesn’t happen. I’ll happily eat crow if my guess is wrong. As someone who uses a cellular iPad mini 6 with VOIP and buds to ALSO stand in as my "iPhone," the one great feature of the actual iPhone is pocket-ability... so I'd be quite interested in just such a product.
As to wrong or right about Apple needing a better price vs. a slimmer phone, we’ll see that too in time… as relative share keeps shrinking but profitability per phone is held tight. The world is voting with their wallets, not the fine differences of thickness of pockets.
I believe iPhone will mature in share like Mac has relative to PC. Macs are fantastic computers and incredibly profitable for the Corp… but only a relatively small slice of all computer owners- like me- own a Mac. It appears Apple wants the same for iPhone. Bring on new thinner designs, new colors, etc. That should address the market share fade!
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