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Adelphos33

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Mar 13, 2012
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1) New "killer app" features that are not on old phones - we haven't really seen a big increase in iPhone functionality in a few years. Apple Pay was really the last one. Faster, bigger, better cameras, and FaceID are'nt new use cases; paying with my phone is, using my phone to request taxis is (though this came from an App oviously). Come up with a new use case for iPhones that is compelling enough to make more people upgrade.

2) New iPhone SE model - could be the same body as the iPhone 8, or the iPhone SE. Innovate in the smaller size.

3) Simplify the model lineup. Due to the increase in number of models, the average customer is confused about iPhone purchases and often feels they get ripped off by the expensive model or got pushed the worse model. Have a variety of price points, fine, but make sure that all buyers are happy with the value proposition of their phones.
 
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Will your feelings be hurt if I tell you that all your concepts are wrong? Apple needs to do only one thing:

1) Raise prices on the November 2019 iPhone X replacement to make them more exclusive and limited in nature.

Apple is a luxury brand and they thrive when they make luxury items. When they go the budget route, when they try to discount, when they cheapen the product, when they try to go for a larger market share, things often don't go well.

See, we wealthy don't like it when any average Joe making $50K a year can have the same smartphone that we have.
 
1) It's going to have to be some killer app to get me to buy another iPhone. I won't even update iOS because I want to keep my jailbreak.

I don't use my phone for apps (I own quite a few internet capable computers). I use it for calls, texts and emails when out so this killer app is going to have to be so spectacular it changes the way I use my phone. That hasn't changed in 10 years so Apple's got some serious work to do there.

I'd be much more likely to come back to Apple if they started allowing me to customize my phone like jailbreaking does. But they won't so unless they shock me with this killer app it isn't going to happen.

2) I doubt the SE is coming back. It's a nice phone and I'd love to see it in the size of the plus models. It's proof that Apple can make a camera flush with the casing if they want to. But I don't see it happening.

3) I don't care about, really, because when I buy a phone it's going to get used for about 3.5 years. I tend to buy the largest size flagship offered with the most capacity in the color I want. If Apple offers a phone I like, I'm willing to pay the price for that. But that hasn't happened since the iPhone 5. Of course, paying less for what I want would be great though.
 
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The problem with #1 is that Apple's strategy relies on making money on expensive hardware. This means a small user base to collect service fees from.

A good killer app needs to have access to users globally. That means the hardware needs to be cheap enough to be universally accessible.

WeChat Pay is a great example. You can use it book a doctor's appointment and pay for it. Or use it to pay for gasoline or utilities. You can pay for goods whether you're in China or Canada. Apple Pay will never catch up because it's limited in user base.

Apple's strategy runs out of steam once competitors can quickly catch up in terms of hardware. The TrueDepth camera is a perfect example. Huawei was able to match if not exceed the TrueDepth system within 12 months using an even better dot projector and cameras.
 
Oh, I know, having been in many of those threads. A bit of reality still spills through in response once in a while.

Woah I just realised, you’ve made it to Sandy Bridge! Seems like almost yesterday you were a 6502 :)
 
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Apple is a luxury brand and they thrive when they make luxury items. When they go the budget route, when they try to discount, when they cheapen the product, when they try to go for a larger market share, things often don't go well.

Which product exactly did Apple ‘go budget’ on or what did they ‘cheapen’? You leave quite a few open ended questions here. I mean, trade in’s wouldn’t be classified as budget, but as far as I am concerned, all their products are premium.
 
The wealthy couldn't care less about something like that.

Well, this wealthy person does so let’s assume I’m not alone. Expensive phones for wealthy people tend to attract wealthy buyers. Some of whom (wait for it) post in discussion forums.
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Which product exactly did Apple ‘go budget’ on or what did they ‘cheapen’? You leave quite a few open ended questions here. I mean, trade in’s wouldn’t be classified as budget, but as far as I am concerned, all their products are premium.

The XR is a mistake. Allows middle class customers to get the notch which upsets the luxury customers. We like it when we have a premium iPhone with an iconic premium design feature.
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Hah, a wealthy person hanging around and commenting on Internet forums. Imagine if other wealthy people found out, that’s got to be mortifying. High-end people are way beyond stuff like this. Must be teething.

Yeah, you would have thought that old wives tale of “rich people don’t talk about their wealth” would have gone out the window when that became the Instagram business model.
 
Well, this wealthy person does so let’s assume I’m not alone. Expensive phones for wealthy people tend to attract wealthy buyers. Some of whom (wait for it) post in discussion forums.
Sounds like the statement would then be "See, some people don't like it when ..." given that "we wealthy" is a basically a generalization that doesn't appear to fit given that you mentioned it's far from all or even most of the wealthy people by any means, and reality shows that the wealth part really has nothing to do with any of it.
 
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Successful people usually have figured out how to cut bs out of their life, like spending energy sniping complete strangers on Internet forums. Not an efficient use of time, nor a happy one. That’s why I’m thinking beginner. You’ll get it though!

Stop trying to figure me out. I’m an anomaly apparently. My point is that Apple succeeds when it focuses on the luxury segment and isn’t meddling with the moderate and/or budget consumer.

The X was a magnificent success because it was innovative and didn’t pretend to be something it wasn’t. The price didn’t phase it’s intended audience. And that audience is not the “S” group. We’re the early adopter group and we are not on a one year cycle, we are two year people and edging towards three as Apple is making a great product that doesn’t need replacing that quickly anymore and industry innovation is maxing out.
 
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Stop trying to figure me out. I’m an anomaly apparently. My point is that Apple succeeds when it focuses on the luxury segment and isn’t meddling with the moderate and/or budget consumer.

Thats what they are doing now, and they aren't succeeding. The forums are full of Apple devotee's that look at current upgrade options and choose to pass. If you were running Apple, it would be in worse shape than Tim Cooks Apple right now, and thats saying something.
 
Thats what they are doing now, and they aren't succeeding. The forums are full of Apple devotee's that look at current upgrade options and choose to pass. If you were running Apple, it would be in worse shape than Tim Cooks Apple right now, and thats saying something.

Last year, Apple introduces iPhone X, the general public and investors cry about the high prices, and Apple reports record earnings, the X becomes the biggest selling smartphone in history.

This year, Apple introduces the iPhone Xr, the general public and investors praise Apple for reacting to price criticism, and sales across the board nosedive and Apple loses $50M in valuation in a single day.

Apple has got to stop chasing the low end of the smartphone market and double-down on the luxury market. It worked last year, it'll work down the road. And it's what they need to do anyway. These "S" releases don't work anymore because last year all the early adopters and all the S people jumped on the X which was truly new and innovative. When Apple does something that breakthru again, probably 2020, they will again set sales records and their stock will rise up again. This nonsense of investor pressure on a business model from 2011 doesn't fly anymore in 2019. There just isn't enough innovation to sustain new-every-two strategies. If Apple deserves criticism it is by failing to recognize this and setting their earnings accordingly.
 
There is nothing luxury about a $1000 phone, it’s absolutely, without a doubt for commoners. Every nobody in China has one. We all buy $1000+ laptops too, big deal. The real ballers are rolling in the five figure range for a custom iPhone or specific luxury brand.

Stop. We all tend to view the world through our own lens and our own experiences. I've been to the 'real' China and it's not Shanghai. Here in the US I'll see more people with an iPhone 4 each day than I do with an iPhone 7 let alone an iPhone X. I'm comfortable financially yet my wife and I get the X and my teen daughter gets the 8. Most of her friends are fortunate to own a 6.

$1000 is a lot of money to a lot of people. Especially those going through post-subsidy sticker shock where they used to get a new iPhone every two years for $99 and weren't asked to plunk down $1200 cash or pay a monthly lease payment.

This is now the second or third consecutive "S" cycle that has disappointed Wall Street. It's no longer an anomaly, it's reality. The big spenders on the non-S cycle are a different group of consumers than those on the S cycle who wait out the year-old model hoping for a cheaper price. Apple has to stop catering to these S types otherwise they'll alienate the non-S group and wind up where no luxury brand wants to be- the middle.
 
WeChat Pay is a great example. You can use it book a doctor's appointment and pay for it. Or use it to pay for gasoline or utilities. You can pay for goods whether you're in China or Canada.
You mean in those terrible “ethnic enclaves” the nouveau riche Chinese segregate themselves into in Canada after they’ve moved their ill-gotten gains out of reach of The Party, right? Huawei’s CFO under hourse arrest comes to mind...
 
The problem with #1 is that Apple's strategy relies on making money on expensive hardware. This means a small user base to collect service fees from.

A good killer app needs to have access to users globally. That means the hardware needs to be cheap enough to be universally accessible.

WeChat Pay is a great example. You can use it book a doctor's appointment and pay for it. Or use it to pay for gasoline or utilities. You can pay for goods whether you're in China or Canada. Apple Pay will never catch up because it's limited in user base.

Apple's strategy runs out of steam once competitors can quickly catch up in terms of hardware. The TrueDepth camera is a perfect example. Huawei was able to match if not exceed the TrueDepth system within 12 months using an even better dot projector and cameras.
Well said. The strategy to make money on services is not effective when your products are more expensive then the rest. The pool of customers is smaller.
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Don’t encourage him, he’s been at it in other threads (e.g. below):
Net worth of 14million but waste time on forums. Lol suuuure buddy.
 
I live in southern Taiwan and it’s X everywhere you look, and these people make less than the poverty line in the US. But hey that’s just my perspective I guess. Carry on.

Just pick one narrative and stick to it:

1. "The iPhone X is everywhere! Everywhere you look! Even my cleaning girl has one!"

2. "The iPhone X is too expensive! Apple is alienating their core customer base! Outrage!"

Dancing between the two narratives leads nowhere. What we know as a fact is that when Apple increased iPhone prices past the $1000 mark and their carriers removed subsidies the business achieved an all-time low in unit sales and an all-time high in revenue and profitability. That leads one to believe the correct narrative is that the phone is expensive and a luxury good catering to a luxury consumer who is willing to pay more for a phone with great features that isn't owned by every cleaning girl and street sweeper.
 
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