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OPINION:How come the Iphone 6s is not selling that great?

BigBoyBmw760li

BigBoyBmw760li

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 14, 2014
59
15
BOSTON
I have been reading numerous articles lately regarding the apparently disappointing sales of the the Iphone 6s. How come the Iphone 6s is not selling as great as previous iphones? Is it because there are not enough new features to justify the purchase of a new iphone? I understand there are new major stuff such as 12 meg pix camera, 2gb ram, and force touch but is it really a day/night difference? In my opinion, I do not think so and please here me out. As a former owner of a silver 6s Plus 128gb, my silver 6 w/ ios 8, my 6 preformed just as fast as my former 6s Plus.

Secondly, how come Apple and other carriers are pushing so many ad's for the 6s? If I remember correctly besides the "Shot on the Iphone 6" campaign, the 6 barley had any ad's; it literally sold itself; you cannot really say the same for the 6s. One major factor was with many females and models such as Kylie/Kendall Jenner I see on IG boasting their new Iphone 6 when it came out. Addiotnally if you are young college kid like me, ;) you would know many artist such as Lil Wayne made references to the new Iphone 6 at the time. While I do believe the iphone 5/5s had the best design structurally (Real one hand texting for example) there was no denying how smooth and sleek the 6 looked when it came out compared to older iphones (Especially Silver; looks amazing with a Imac/Macbook btw thank me later). If you are serious about social media and use it for a business like myself, you will understand how impactful it was and how so many people wanted to get the iphone 6 at the time; despite it was already time for the newest chassi to be released. I would even argue since the Iphone 6 was so successful, many people felt the peer pressure with IG models and friends posting mirror selfies with their iphone 6 sticking out oh-so-perfectly in the middle of the frame. (We know many of our lady friends who did this many times before ahaha)

Lastly, do you know more friends with the iphone 6s than 6? Because for me, more of my friends have a 6 than a 6s opposed to more of my friends having 6 than a 5s a couple of years ago.


If the 6s were truly that great; everyone would have a 6s by now; just something to think about... I used to say "S" stand's for "Smart" but now I believe "S" stand for "Silly". Could Apple be finally losing it's touch?(No pun intended) Or this is just the aftermath of loosing such a innovative guy such as Steve Jobs?

Here's one of the articles the motivated me making this thread:http://www.reuters.com/article/us-apple-suppliers-idUSKCN0V00V5

I am very keen to hear what you guys/ladies think. Thx in advance.
 
You are aware they sold like 14,000,000 in the first 3 days, right? Up from 10,000,000 in the first 3 days for the iPhone 6. And I believe that is up from 8,000,000 in the first 3 days from the 5s.

The issue is as time goes on, the smartphone market is starting to plateau. Everyone that wants a smartphone has a smartphone, and those that aren't "techies" aren't upgrading as often. But without a doubt when the year is finished (September), Apple will have sold more 6s/6s+ than any other iPhone generation.

Additionally, because of the lack of 2 year contracts now, its much, much more expensive to get constantly upgrade to the next iPhone. So you cannot say, "if it was such a great phone, everyone would have it". Everyone can't afford it.
 
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TL;DR
My assumption is it's a combination of carriers doing away with subsidized contracts, 3.5/4" screen lovers holding on to their phones, maturity of the product, and the fact that the 6S really, honestly is not much different from the 6. ""To Me"", it is not noticeably faster, not noticeably better performing, photos looks the same give same aperture, 3D Touch is laughable, and the phones look identical. I would think even enthusiasts like us in the forums have had an inner struggle as to whether the S versions are worth the cost of an upgrade.

(I do find the jump from the 6 Plus to the 6S Plus a bit more worthy given the impact of 2gb ram to that particular model)
 
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Most people update every 2 years, given the old contract cycle. Not everyone has the time, money, energy, carrier bill decryption keys, or the want to update with each iteration of a phone. I don't need a need an iPhone every year, that's why I have a 6 plus. You're really not going to notice the 1 or 2 seconds apps open faster on the 6S over the 6 unless you're watching comparison videos. The fact still remains, the iPhone 6S is faster, that can't be debated. There were just as many ads for the iPhone 6. Just because Tyga and Wiz Khalifa aren't rapping about the 6S Plus with their girlfriends taking insta selfies in the mirror, doesn't mean your opinion has any validity to it.
 
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They sold millions the first weekend there's only so many they can sell over a long period of time
 
Most of the people I know are still on 2-year contracts that don't end on the S cycle of iPhone releases.
 
Before you call iPhone 6s sales "disappointing," wait until next week's quarterly financial report.

Note that such comments tend to be made by so-called analysts who are invariably wrong. The story is either "Apple beats analyst expectations" or "Apple misses analyst estimates."
 
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I have a 6s, and I think it is amazing. I noticed it was seemingly more available through att over the months following release when I was contemplating which one I wanted.

For me, it was the preferred option because it was a comfortable fit, yet no compromise, spec wise, against the plus variant besides lower pixel density, lesser battery life, and absense of OIS - I can understand how others may desire those features more over $100 difference
 
I7guy said:
How do you know what the sales are if Apple hasn't released its numbers for the prior quarter?
Click to expand...
Well if you go based on availability then the iPhone 6s was pretty much open to buy in November or December. The iPhone 6 wasn't until late January I believe? I remember looking for an iPhone 6 Plus in November when I was switching to Verizon and the Best Buy I went to only had a 64gb in silver and I wanted gold. Apple website didn't have any to ship in 2 days as well at the time
 
aristobrat said:
Most of the people I know are still on 2-year contracts that don't end on the S cycle of iPhone releases.
Click to expand...

I for one leased my iPhone 6 Plus in March of 2015 so I have until 2017 to lease another phone l. I've done workarounds to upgrade yearly from 2012-2014 but I'm tired of doing it
 
Apple make most of their money from the iPhone.
I'm sure if the iPhone sales were down it would have come out in the last investors call.
 
Closingracer said:
Well if you go based on availability then the iPhone 6s was pretty much open to buy in November or December. The iPhone 6 wasn't until late January I believe? I remember looking for an iPhone 6 Plus in November when I was switching to Verizon and the Best Buy I went to only had a 64gb in silver and I wanted gold. Apple website didn't have any to ship in 2 days as well at the time
Click to expand...
Could it be Apple made sure the supply chain was in full motion to churn out phones at full capacity? Of course the flip side is an over supply due to low sales. Well know soon.
 
Closingracer said:
Well if you go based on availability then the iPhone 6s was pretty much open to buy in November or December. The iPhone 6 wasn't until late January I believe? I remember looking for an iPhone 6 Plus in November when I was switching to Verizon and the Best Buy I went to only had a 64gb in silver and I wanted gold. Apple website didn't have any to ship in 2 days as well at the time
Click to expand...

The 's' variant, always has more in stock than the non-'s' on launch and subsequently after launch. This is because they already have the body ready to go and just need to put in the new internals. Its been this way for years.
 
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Mlrollin91 said:
You are aware they sold like 14,000,000 in the first 3 days, right? Up from 10,000,000 in the first 3 days for the iPhone 6. And I believe that is up from 8,000,000 in the first 3 days from the 5s.

The issue is as time goes on, the smartphone market is starting to plateau. Everyone that wants a smartphone has a smartphone, and those that aren't "techies" aren't upgrading as often. But without a doubt when the year is finished (September), Apple will have sold more 6s/6s+ than any other iPhone generation.

Additionally, because of the lack of 2 year contracts now, its much, much more expensive to get constantly upgrade to the next iPhone. So you cannot say, "if it was such a great phone, everyone would have it". Everyone can't afford it.
Click to expand...

I see your point and I am aware of the sales for the opening weekend. And I agree, the smartphone market; especially the iphone market is very mature now. But isn't the iphone 6 the most adopted Iphone ever? I highly doubt the 6s will beat that.
 
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My guess is a combination of things..first the market is saturated, secondly no subsidies, and lastly the economy is down in general. Making it far too expensive for some to spend money on luxury items. I also think the current phones may be percieved as fast enough already for most users. That said, I'm sure they still sold boatloads of them.

My current phone is a 6 and I likely wont upgrade before the 7s unless they come out with a 4 inch model before then.
 
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Ladybug said:
My guess is a combination of things..first the market is saturated, secondly no subsidies, and lastly the economy is down in general. Making it far too expensive for some to spend money on luxury items. I also think the current phones may be percieved as fast enough already for most users. That said, I'm sure they still sold boatloads of them.

My current phone is a 6 and I likely wont upgrade before the 7s unless they come out with a 4 inch model before then.
Click to expand...
I call 14,000,000 launch day weekend boatloads.

Be to to repeat, sales weren't released how can you have an "informed" opinion of why?
 
BigBoyBmw760li said:
I see your point and I am aware of the sales for the opening weekend. And I agree, the smartphone market; especially the iphone market is very mature now. But isn't the iphone 6 the most adopted Iphone ever? I highly doubt the 6s will beat that.
Click to expand...
6s has been out for 4 months. 6 has been out for 16 months. You have to only measure first year sales. So in September compare first year 6s to first year 6 sales. I guarantee 6s will be more.
 
Closingracer said:
Well if you go based on availability then the iPhone 6s was pretty much open to buy in November or December. The iPhone 6 wasn't until late January I believe? I remember looking for an iPhone 6 Plus in November when I was switching to Verizon and the Best Buy I went to only had a 64gb in silver and I wanted gold. Apple website didn't have any to ship in 2 days as well at the time
Click to expand...

The 6s was more readily available than the 6 due to having way more ready to ship at launch. 6s and 6s+ combined had roughly 60-70 million units ready to go for launch. The 6 and 6+ didn't have even close to that.
 
We're also forgetting the law of big numbers here. What analysts call "disappointing" numbers are still massive amounts, tens of millions of phones being sold, and billions of dollars in profit. The reason they consider it "disappointing" is because it might possibly be a drop from last year's numbers.

Does this mean Apple is doomed? No. It just means that even Apple reaches a limit on how many people want to buy new iPhones in a given year. And no one can continue to smash sales records over and over, year after year, forever.

Unfortunately, the market rhetoric is very black and white. If you're not breaking sales records from the previous year, then to the market analysts, OMG that must mean you're on the verge of declaring bankruptcy, TIME TO SELL. Even ignoring the fact that on a "bad" quarter, Apple still makes billions in profit, and has hundreds of billions of dollars in cash that it's just sitting on.

The market for smartphones has matured and stabilized, but the demand isn't going away.

Incidentally, a similar situation has happened with the PC market. Somehow, people started assuming that everyone has to throw away their PC or Mac every single year and buy a new one, even after most people kept their PCs for years in the Windows XP days. When that pattern didn't change, everyone suddenly predicted the death of the PC, conveniently forgetting the fact that people still use PCs and macs quite a bit... we just aren't motivated to consider them as disposable items.

Tablets? Same thing. The market matured and stabilized. It just happened more quickly than with smartphones. But tablets are not dead, nor going away anytime soon.
 
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I would go and say its disappointing, but rather sales are slowing. I don't have an answer, but iPhone sales are started to flatten out right now.
 
They are still selling a crapload! And still making a ton of money! People always want growth but making a huge profit is still making a huge profit even if it's 1 billion less than the year before
 
finner18 said:
TL;DR
My assumption is it's a combination of carriers doing away with subsidized contracts, 3.5/4" screen lovers holding on to their phones, maturity of the product, and the fact that the 6S really, honestly is not much different from the 6. ""To Me"", it is not noticeably faster, not noticeably better performing, photos looks the same give same aperture, 3D Touch is laughable, and the phones look identical. I would think even enthusiasts like us in the forums have had an inner struggle as to whether the S versions are worth the cost of an upgrade.

(I do find the jump from the 6 Plus to the 6S Plus a bit more worthy given the impact of 2gb ram to that particular model)
Click to expand...

I moved from a 6 plus to a 6s plus and I disagree with everything you say.
 
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