They won’t simplify their line up for one reason. Have you noticed that every new iteration of a product is higher priced than the product it should replace? By still selling the old one, it looks as they give you a choice. It’s psychological manipulation at its finest. A company with the customer in mind would remove the older products an sell the new ones for the price it is replacing.
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No Design Changes Expected for Next-Generation $329 iPad, Touch ID and Headphone Jack to Remain
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I like the fact they are keeping the existing lines open longer since the products are "good enough" in form factor, and will get recent internals.
There was little sense of releasing a new MacBook "Air" when the 12" MacBook is technically "airier", but they did it anyway. I don't think sense applies to Apple's lineup right now.
They should be priced lower even with the new internals inside. The technology inside the “new” iPads won’t be state of the art and when you compare them to other brands with similar specs, they’re still excessive priced. This isn’t 2012 anymore. The components got a lot cheaper. The only way you’re thinking it’s a bargain is because the new iPad Pros are priced above a decent laptop these days.
They have done it with the iPhones for ages now, and it worked out great and still seems to work. Older models getting about $100 cheaper after a year(except for the 10.5 inch iPad Pro , disappointing btw), is a good thing. Choice is a good thing....
$ 100 a year is nothing in tech. Try to sell it back at Apple and you know how they value it
I thing they had a plan for the 12 inch MacBook but that R&D has a bit of a delay.
I think it will feature an arm processor and will be renamed iBook or something like that.
Why is it curious? Yikes, sounds like a 1/10 for critical thinking skills, but you do get credit for actually reading my post; I’ve been told it’s a Yaaaaawn-er lol.
So I was responding to OP’s complaint: why the price of the mini 4 hadn’t dropped at all—even after four years. You apparently decided to over-generalize that into “Apple never drops prices on anything”.
But that’s not true at all, right? Specifically, when Apple brings out a new model at a given price point AND keeps the previous model(s) in the lineup, they must drop the price of the older model. Otherwise, who would buy it? (Note: Here’s where the critical thinking skills needed to kick in.)
The XR came out at £749 with FaceID, a huge 6.1” screen, much-reduced bezels and of course the latest A12 processor. Why would anyone want to pay £699/£799 for the year-old iPhone 8/8 Plus when they could get the XR for £749? So Apple’s forced to drop their price: £599/£699.
But it doesn’t stop there. The iPhone 7/7 Plus was already selling at £599/£699. Who would buy iPhone 7/7 Plus for £599/£699 when they can now get the 8/8 Plus for those same prices? Right, no one. So they must drop the price on the 7/7 Plus: £449/£569. Nice phones, the best Apple phones available at any price just 2 years prior, now at prices almost too good to be true. Wow, turns out Apple’s pretty good at this pricing game, no?
But there’s another problem (and if you’ve been paying attention you can probably guess what it is). The 6s/6s Plus were already selling at £449/£569. Who would buy the 6s/6s Plus for £449/£569 when they could get the 7/7 Plus for those same prices? Right, no one.
So does Apple cut the price on the 6s/6s Plus to something like £349/£469 and keep selling them alongside the 7 series, 8 series and XR/XS series? Nope. There’s no money to be made at £349/£469, even on 3 year old phones. So the 6s/6s Plus are discontinued. (But still sold in “price-sensitive” markets.)
Note also that if Apple comes out with a newer model that’s not at the same price point, the previous model will (likely) not get a price cut. Rather, it will stay at its original price, if it’s to be sold alongside the new model. A couple easy examples:
- 11.0 iPad Pro (3rd gen) comes out at $799, $150 higher than the previous model. So the 10.5” (2nd gen) does not get a price cut because it doesn’t need one; it doesn’t collide with the newer model, which is $799. Therefore the 10.5” stays at $649.
- 2018 MacBook Air comes out at $1,199, $200 higher than the previous model. Since there’s no price collision, there’s no need for a discount. So the 2017/2016 model stays at $999.
Try to sell it on eBay, and you should see resale value is quite good. And I mean $100 retail, there are lots of deals at bestbuy , etc to get another $100 off.$ 100 a year is nothing in tech. Try to sell it back at Apple and you know how they value it
It does, you’re just picking what’s important to you to support a baseless conclusion.
Does it work, really? They still command astronomical sales but they have completely plateau-ed and it only goes downhill from there. And in the mind of the consumer, Apple does not stand for innovation anymore. Not just talking about Steve-era Apple acolytes / acrimonious tech blog commenters like yours truly, also the "most people" y'all like to quote here and there.
Choice is indeed a good thing. Too much choice or artificial sense of choice is not.
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Removing the headphone jack from a 11-13" productivity and media consumption device was completely baseless.
Reads like a perfect model.
Well, until the perfect storm, and reality, is unleashed by competition (and customer reluctance) in the absence of innovation.
[By the way, and maybe you do not know this, there are plenty opportunities to buy discounted Apple, with discounts blessed by corporate, but offered by, and isolated to third-party distribution, esp. by the end of a calendar year.]
And still Apple is putting the less percentage of any technology company in R&D. If they just put a fraction more of their profits into it, they would be able to make their whole line up state of the art and having more satisfied customers.
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The R&D has been probably pumped into the newest carpets in the spaceship and redecoration of their shops. Don’t see it in their product offerings and I’m looking at them for years.
For what? It's certainly not for the computing (iPhone/iPad/Mac) side of the company.
Give the people want they want!
As well as amazing, cutting edge devices, we also want good value devices. The iPad, and hopefully the mini, and hopefully an SE replacement will fill this gap.
As well as amazing, cutting edge devices, we also want good value devices. The iPad, and hopefully the mini, and hopefully an SE replacement will fill this gap.
38% was the company-wide gross margin. Apple has now begun reporting services gross margin, which was 63%(!). Product margin (hardware and accessories) was 34%. So the two categories combined were 38% (on a weighted average basis).
Yes, your certainly correct that overhead (G&A) expenses have increased, and of course R&D has also increased—an additional $1 billion per month over the 2011 spending. Such is the luxury of having very profitable products throwing off a ton of free cash flow.
btw Apple has definitely spent a lot on stock buybacks, but it’s not an expense item so there’s no effect on the P&L. It’s strictly a balance sheet transaction; the asset cash decreases and the treasury stock account increases.
I’m thinking of creative industries mainly. Since getting a Wacom Cintiq, I barely use my iPad Pro for work etc but using a budget iPad could be a pain once you start adding loads of layers. My point was really that someone buying an iPad for work isn’t going to worry so much about cost and most likely would go for the iPad Pro.
Saying that, I mainly use Windows for work so what do I know
The general idea is that nothing is perfect, it can always be improved. Surely, its not possible to beat the expectations of people of the 90s where we saw amazing advancement on almost yearly basis... but the general iPad design has been the same for sometime.
Personally, I rather it stay as it is instead of Tim Cook giving us his magic touch because so far everything he has improved is actually a step backward like the touchbar and the bendy-ipads , loss of touch id and headphone jack, and more.
I know that a lot of people here will be disappointed if this is true, but there's really no need to mess with the entry level iPad. Just keep the internals up to date and the price low and it's still the best tablet option for like 95% of consumers. The rest who need/want something more cutting edge get a Pro.
I’m going to have to disagree. The benzel are too big. Android tablets are a much better deal and look way better.
Keeping a screen that is 6 years old isn’t a good differentiation. It just encourages others to switch to Look at other devices(non-Apple).
Evidence is in the revenue. Tim doesn’t under stand why iPad sales have dived, It’s because there is no real reason to upgrade!
Wish Apple would come out with a low cost iPhone with a headphone jack, nice internal DAC, and touch id. Heck, even a medium cost and I'd buy another iPhone. As it is, my 2017 iPad Pro has those things, as does my iPhone 6S+.