Second-Generation iPhone X Estimated to Cost Apple Up to 10% Less to Manufacture

[ipponrg]

The closed system is Apple’s biggest strength. I like their strategy and investors confirmedearlier this year they like it too (Along with the fantastic Tim Cook). Even if it’s not valued as a pure services play, it can be valued as a consumer products company, which gives it a multiple in the 20s.

Yes. I agree with the bold wholeheartedly. Consumer products company. NOT a services company. If you think about it, providing external services risks confidentiality even more which is against their mantra.

They will be known for being a product company with their own closed ecosystem that has everything working (??) harmoniously together.

What will be interesting in the coming years is how their investment into the media streaming space will affect their revenue.

I see a few risks in Apple's future:
- They burn a lot of cash on original content with failed results. There were early glimpses of this happening (see SJ's attempt to court content owners)
- Google figures out their product user base or even start locking their OS down. This means they actually focus on user experience and not be completely stupid
- A new worthy competitor emerges
- User growth become stagnant due to hardware ownership ceiling

Now the flip side could happen:
- Apple's original content becomes an enormous success prompting huge Apple TV growth, and Roku experiences a hit to their ecosystem. Apple creates a nice accessible living room experience with all their products (both hardware and software).
- Google continues to fail at figuring out the user base
- No new worthy competitor emerges

 

[Baymowe335]

Yes. I agree with the bold wholeheartedly. Consumer products company. NOT a services company. If you think about it, providing external services risks confidentiality even more which is against their mantra.

They will be known for being a product company with their own closed ecosystem that has everything working (??) harmoniously together.

What will be interesting in the coming years is how their investment into the media streaming space will affect their revenue.

I see a few risks in Apple's future:
- They burn a lot of cash on original content with failed results. There were early glimpses of this happening (see SJ's attempt to court content owners)
- Google figures out their product user base or even start locking their OS down. This means they actually focus on user experience and not be completely stupid
- A new worthy competitor emerges
- User growth become stagnant due to hardware ownership ceiling

Now the flip side could happen:
- Apple's original content becomes an enormous success prompting huge Apple TV growth, and Roku experiences a hit to their ecosystem. Apple creates a nice accessible living room experience with all their products (both hardware and software).
- Google continues to fail at figuring out the user base
- No new worthy competitor emerges

Not a services company...yet. Definitely not a traditional hardware company. Definitely undervalued.

All stocks have risks and you always have to monitor them. When the facts change, I’ll change up to and including Apple.

Apple would have to burn an insane amount of money on original concept for it to even be anything close to material. That isn’t a risk at all in my view. It’s like a rounding error. They have so much cash and earning power.

The buyback is hugely underrated. With every share they buy back, the buyback becomes more impactful. 1b shares on a 5b base is going to be more impactful than the 1b bought back on a 6b base. I believe this is the “edge” Buffett and Munger talk about when they vaguely mention their position in Apple, now over 165M shares. I’ve owned Apple much longer than Buffett, but I believe we have the same view of the company. It’s just so ingrained in peoples’ lives and incredibly sticky. I love the cash machine and the fact they are delivering real earnings today. It will take time for wallstreet to truly appreciate the power.

 

[geta]

You are welcome! I love my iPhone X but I actually agree with you that I would prefer it to be the same size/weight as my old iPhone 6. This is a very small complaint given how much I like the phone, but I do agree with your points. I find it much more difficult to use the phone with one hand like I did my 6.

Exactly the problem im having with all the correct Phablets (5” screens and bigger), they are just to big and heavy to use one handed. All the phones these days are more then capable, so I will wait for a smaller sized X (SE size\weight or even 6 size\weight). In the meantime im happy to continue using my SE that do all what i want till they release small X version…

 

[9081094]

Nope. I don’t handle any operational tasks and I’m very happy about that. I manage a virtual team of about 60 employees for a logistics brokerage. I’m not sure why it bothers you so much what platform I choose, but my only point is that I don’t feel the need to try other platforms. As long as Apple gives me the best combination of performance, security, privacy, ecosystem, apps, and support. I’m good.

I don’t mind what platform you use. I’m happy for you you’re satisfied. All I’m trying to tell you is that you could do the same and more for half the price. The assumption that only Apple gives you the best combination of performance, security, privacy, ecosystem and apps are long over due and not only Apple is giving you that. In fact the last 5 years many competitors leapfrogged Apple in this area where it used to be the king and justified its higher prices. Not anymore.

 

[DNichter]

I don’t mind what platform you use. I’m happy for you you’re satisfied. All I’m trying to tell you is that you could do the same and more for half the price. The assumption that only Apple gives you the best combination of performance, security, privacy, ecosystem and apps are long over due and not only Apple is giving you that. In fact the last 5 years many competitors leapfrogged Apple in this area where it used to be the king and justified its higher prices. Not anymore.

I have asked for some examples from you, but I haven't seen any yet. There may be a combination of devices and services that can ultimately do the same thing for me, but I don't like wasting my time with that stuff anymore. I am happy to pay a bit more to get everything I need from one place and have it all work as expected. There is no other platform that can provide a better experience when it comes to performance, security, privacy, ecosystem, apps, and support. Google? Samsung? Come on man.

 

[AdonisSMU]

When iPhone 6 came out it was the latest and greatest from Apple. Now iPhone X is double the price.
Is that reasonable?
I like the time when Apple released their product and maintain the pricing. Unlike recently when every year there is a price increase which now resulting in a starting price of £999 (for a smartphone!). Are you ok with these incremental price changes?

We have now reached a point where the tech is no longer reflecting the price.
Look at it this way - most people will not notice difference between iPhone 7 and iPhone X on daily basis. The speed gain is pretty much no longer noticeable. The picture quality is negligible to most users. Screen is bigger (with a notch!) and that is probably the only main difference that people will spot straight away but is it worth the price tag? I doubt that and I personally would be happy to wait another 1-3 years for the tech to be less expensive. In fact, I still feel LCD is far superior as I don't think even Apple solved the colour problems with OLED.

And other things like FaceID etc. are just little gimmick that most people don't need and certainly don't justify the price.

Yes, all these little things setup for the future but for now, we are forced to buy thicker and heavier phone, that is more expensive and in everyday use we don't notice much difference.
There is a difference on paper and there is a difference in reality and the price tag doesn't match the reality.

So yeah, I think people are spoiled these days and they no longer consider the real added value to their purchases. They just blindly go and buy the latest because they feel that they need to have it in order for their lives to be to better. The reality is, we can all upgrade once every few years and we would be totally fine.

You didn't answer my question. You thought that dodging my question was an answer but its not an answer.

 

[Cesar Battistini]

50% annual earnings for a phone that gets easily lost, stolen or broken and will certainly be outdated after one year ... that is crazy indeed

iPhones get outdated after 5 years. An iPhone 7 is a great smartphone still!!! I'm with the 6 and it works great for me, but it's starting to lack some features like 3d touch, portrait mode.

 

[Freida]

You didn't answer my question. You thought that dodging my question was an answer but its not an answer.

I was not dodging it. I simply explained (or tried to) why I believe its not reasonable and I gave an example from the past. Each person is different and for each person the price will be different but if you really wanna know my "price" then I would have to say that I would want the phone to be price £519 just as much as iPhone 6 was as a flagship phone.
£699 for iPhone 8 (which is not even flagship) and £999 for iPhone X is just too much.

So yeah, if you want simple answer I would want iPhone 8 to cost £519 and iPhone X could be little more (maybe that £699) That to me would reflect the value/price you get

 

[geta]

I was not dodging it. I simply explained (or tried to) why I believe its not reasonable and I gave an example from the past. Each person is different and for each person the price will be different but if you really wanna know my "price" then I would have to say that I would want the phone to be price £519 just as much as iPhone 6 was as a flagship phone.
£699 for iPhone 8 (which is not even flagship) and £999 for iPhone X is just too much.

So yeah, if you want simple answer I would want iPhone 8 to cost £519 and iPhone X could be little more (maybe that £699) That to me would reflect the value/price you get

The prices these days are ridiculous, unfortunately if you want the latest and the greatest you need to shell around €1000 (or pound)...

In reality outside these forums, i dont know many people that willing to pay ridiculous amounts of money for new phones...

 

[Freida]

The prices these days are ridiculous, unfortunately if you want the latest and the greatest you need to shell around €1000 (or pound)...

In reality outside these forums, i dont know many people that willing to pay ridiculous amounts of money for new phones...

Yeah, exactly. It reached insane levels and market manipulated people to think that its actually ok to pay this. Anyway, lets see how this works out in the future. I might actually start buying old tech phones when the price is down to a reasonable level.

 

[PickUrPoison]

Yeah, exactly. It reached insane levels and market manipulated people to think that its actually ok to pay this. Anyway, lets see how this works out in the future. I might actually start buying old tech phones when the price is down to a reasonable level.

The iPhone 7 was the best (non-Plus) iPhone you could buy 7 months ago, and it’ll be under $500 less than 6 months from now. That’s awesome, if you ask me. So I think your idea of buying an older iPhone makes a lot of sense, and is a great value. But everyone has their own priorities.

Apple makes a premium flagship for $999, but not everyone needs it or can afford it. Apple also makes the iMac Pro for $4999, but not everyone needs or can afford that either.

But $1,000 is hardly an insane level, and there’s no market manipulation necessary to make people “think that it’s actually ok to pay this.” It actually is ok for people to pay $1,000 for an iPhone X. And it’s fine to pay $25,000 for a Camry instead of $18,000 for a Corolla.

Just because more expensive models are available doesn’t mean you have to buy them. Personally, my iPhone 6S is doing great. I might buy the new 2018 X for $899 in Sept, might buy a 7 for under $500—or I might even keep my 6S for another year. If the X Plus is priced at $999 I might even buy that. The 8/8 Plus at $599/$699 this Sept is not very attractive to me though.

Since the A9/2GB platform of the 6S/SE, phones are now “fast enough” to last three years minimum. So for me, the difference between $500 and $1,000, for something that lasts 3-4 years, is not really the issue. I’m more concerned with the size/weight of the X Plus since I always carry my phone in my pants pocket.

 

[kazmac]

I would not be surprised if the next gen costs the same or slightly more.

No interest. When this tech costs $650 or less, maybe I will consider it.

 

[Reason077]

This is basically what the X is.

No, I have an X and although an excellent device in many respects, it is very big and bulky compared to my iPhone 6. Too big to comfortably use with one hand.
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Isn't that what the iPhone X already is? Are you confusing yourself?

I have both an iPhone X and an iPhone 6. The X is significantly bigger, heavier, and fatter than the iPhone 6.

Unlike the 6, it's too big to comfortably use with one hand.

 

[MacFan23]

No, I have an X and although an excellent device in many respects, it is very big and bulky compared to my iPhone 6. Too big to comfortably use with one hand.
[doublepost=1522170584][/doublepost]

I have both an iPhone X and an iPhone 6. The X is significantly bigger, heavier, and fatter than the iPhone 6.

Unlike the 6, it's too big to comfortably use with one hand.

I went from a 6s to an X, the feel in hand is basically the same to me, the weight difference is 45g.

Height:
iPhone 6: 5.44"
iPhone X: 5.65"

Width:
iPhone 6: 2.64"
iPhone X: 2.79"

Depth:
iPhone 6: .27"
iPhone X: .3"

The dimensions of the device are almost identical but the X has a larger all-screen display.

How is that much different from your description?

Bring it back to around the iPhone 6/7/8 dimensions, or even slightly smaller. But with the larger all-screen display.

 

[LeoNobilis]

As an iPhone X owner, the price of the next phone had better drop. There is no way I’m going to pay $1K for the iPhone Excess.

Well, of they drop the next iPhone price, who's going to cover Apple's diversity division and propaganda costs? The government?