I’m not going to pay $1,000.00 for a phone. Sorry Apple, you’re shooting yourself in the foot. I’m doing fine with my SE. I don’t want or need a huge screen.
Welcome to 2019 when even Samsung priced its phone 3x more expensive than Apple but Apple is still overprice.
//check the table and read if it's 'marketshare', then skip the table.
What phone is Samsung selling that is 3x the price of Apple’s most expensive phone?
Not sure if this is a serious question, but Galaxy Fold is priced at $2,771 and I've never mentioned about comparing to the most expensive iphone. OP said about not going to pay $1,000 for a phone while Samsung priced its phone at almost $3,000.
IDC has been wrong and corrected by Apple before. It’s very interesting that when Samsung’s shipments go down there’s barely a peep. When Samsung has a $1000 phone crickets. But when Apple does the world is ending. I wouldn’t put much stock in shipment estimates since they’ve been wrong before.
Estimates? LOL. I don’t really care what IDC says about iPhone sale estimates. AAPL is up 5% after hours.
Corrections.....shipping is not the same as sale...IDC only cares of shipped smartphones which does not represent smartphones sold. IDC compares Kia to Mercedez. Emerging markets cant afford a phone that lasts and values stays so they prefer a throwaway cheap phones. IDC next time tell us about sold smartphones not shipped
We have actual numbers from Apple. Not the ones we'd like to see, but still, actual numbers, reported today, about how iphone did in the last quarter. Prices and models are the same as last quarter. How hard is it to do some math and say "Yes, it looks like shipments are down 30%" or (more likely) "IDC is reporting nonsense that illustrates how utterly incompetent they are... again."? That would be actual reporting. Just regurgitating their report with no critical analysis is not useful.
I’m not going to pay $1,000.00 for a phone. Sorry Apple, you’re shooting yourself in the foot. I’m doing fine with my SE. I don’t want or need a huge screen.
Being happy with you SE like I am is fine. It’s all about the width and height of this beautiful Apple creation. What a lot of us need is a updated version of this gem. Price is important but could be reasonaby affordable.
To me is like to see the old days of the Apple of the end of the '80s when they were selling really expensive (and good sure!) stuff when the competitors with product good enough to fight where duplicating, triplicating etc. etc. the market share. Result? Apple dropping from over 30% of the Market to the near 2% of the end of the pre-Jobs era.
The services are sure a good point, but let's tell the true, who's going to buy an Apple service if you do not own at least an Apple (hardware) product? It just makes no sense.
Of course this doesn't means that Apple should produce junks ... not at all! But if you compare the price of the iPhone XS with the price of a Galaxy S9 (the direct concurrent) you notice how after almost 1 Year, you can find an S9 at half the price of the iPhone: sure, you can buy another model, but again ... about 800€ for an iPhone 8 old more than 2 years is crazy. Again, I do not expect to buy the highest Model for 500€, but c'mon ... 1200€ ...
More or less the same Story with the Mac: the Price entry point has been raised to about 800€, if you do not want to buy a computer old of several years (the old MacBook Air), you need to spend about 1300€ for an underpowered MacBook (forgetting the ridiculous size of the entry point SSD...).
Good news from the iPad, but not knowing how many pieces they sold, the doubt is also that as previously for the iPhone, you see more revenues because of the highest price entry point: good strategy for the immediate but in a long time?
I’m not going to pay $1,000.00 for a phone. Sorry Apple, you’re shooting yourself in the foot. I’m doing fine with my SE. I don’t want or need a huge screen.
Welcome to 2019 when even Samsung priced its phone 3x more expensive than Apple but Apple is still overprice.
//check the table and read if it's 'marketshare', then skip the table.
I’m not going to pay $1,000.00 for a phone. Sorry Apple, you’re shooting yourself in the foot. I’m doing fine with my SE. I don’t want or need a huge screen.
Welcome to 2019 when even Samsung priced its phone 3x more expensive than Apple but Apple is still overprice.
//check the table and read if it's 'marketshare', then skip the table.
What phone is Samsung selling that is 3x the price of Apple’s most expensive phone?
I’m not going to pay $1,000.00 for a phone. Sorry Apple, you’re shooting yourself in the foot. I’m doing fine with my SE. I don’t want or need a huge screen.
You don't have to. If you put aside your trolling/iHating persona, you'd discover that Apple happens to sell other iPhones that are not $1,000.
But hey... focus only on the top of the line phone right?
By your mentality, you should be slamming Samsung for having the nerve of selling a $2,000 phone right? Are you going to skewer Samsung too?
Those lower priced iPhones compete with the top premium phones from the Chinese vendors. What would you get, the iPhone 8 or the p30?
The eye watering price of iPhones and Macbooks (especially with decent storage capacity) must be putting people off.
Apple should realise that those of us at the cutting edge typically pass our old devices down to family and friends, many of whom are getting an Apple device for the first time. This helps spread the word and gives Apple additional customers who may sign up for their services.
Hardly. My X was a thousand bucks but spread out over interest free installments, it’s fine. It was Apple’s biggest selling model the entire time it was out. Oops.
I’m not going to pay $1,000.00 for a phone. Sorry Apple, you’re shooting yourself in the foot. I’m doing fine with my SE. I don’t want or need a huge screen.
You don't have to. If you put aside your trolling/iHating persona, you'd discover that Apple happens to sell other iPhones that are not $1,000.
But hey... focus only on the top of the line phone right?
By your mentality, you should be slamming Samsung for having the nerve of selling a $2,000 phone right? Are you going to skewer Samsung too?
Those lower priced iPhones compete with the top premium phones from the Chinese vendors. What would you get, the iPhone 8 or the p30?
1. There is no competition between iOS or Android, it is a choice based on user experience. But there is a battle regarding market share, that’s something totally different. I do understand that Chinese smartphone builders do want to compete just to tell the world they have the better hardware and screen real estate. That’s why the never speak about user experience. It all depends on the choice you make, period.
I’m not going to pay $1,000.00 for a phone. Sorry Apple, you’re shooting yourself in the foot. I’m doing fine with my SE. I don’t want or need a huge screen.
It’s $1000 for a pocket computer, not a phone. And a camera. And a camcorder. And a nav system. And a home automation remote. And a...
Once again... shipments don't mean squat. Who's making the profits on their phones? Yeah. Apple. Buy hey... literally giving phones away and making almost no money from it apparently is more important how?
How do we know who’s making the most profit on their smartphones since NONE of these companies, including Apple, report this? And since when did consumers become obsessed with how much money giant corporations make?
Since when did concern trolls start claiming profits don’t matter? About the time Apple started killing it in profits. Sorry, but in any meaningful discussion of a company’s health, it’s profits first. It’s the air corporations breathe. Market share is not.
I’m not going to pay $1,000.00 for a phone. Sorry Apple, you’re shooting yourself in the foot. I’m doing fine with my SE. I don’t want or need a huge screen.
Welcome to 2019 when even Samsung priced its phone 3x more expensive than Apple but Apple is still overprice.
//check the table and read if it's 'marketshare', then skip the table.
A phone they was never released.
Right, because it was junk and didn’t even work. As for the price, as Kevin said:
”Not sure if this is a serious question, but Galaxy Fold is priced at $2,771 and I've never mentioned about comparing to the most expensive iphone. OP said about not going to pay $1,000 for a phone while Samsung priced its phone at almost $3,000.”
Yes, they are estimates but by anyone's standards they are eyebrow raising. Even slicing them in half would make for shocking reading.
On the other hand we now how two consecutive quarters of Apple officially reporting serious stalling in its iPhone business. I think it was down around 17% in Q1 and 15% in Q2.
Q3 is traditionally a weak iPhone quarter anyway so I wouldn't expect any kind of turnaround in the near future.
Realistically, and I've said this a few times now, Apple has to get competitive again and on many levels. Current phones are too expensive for what they offer and if you check out cheaper Apple options they are last year's phones or even older. To add insult to injury they also look dated.
Huawei is definitely taking sales away from Apple at every price point while whipping Apple on technological advances. One after the other.
Mate 10 Pro (2017) P20 Pro (2018) Mate 20 Pro (2018) P30 Pro (2019)
Four phones on the trot that brought head turning advances. And while Huawei's 2017 models brought high power, fast, TüV certified charging (including reverse charging!), Apple's stuck with 5W one way charging out of the box. In 2019 they are shipping the exact same charger. It was a disgrace in 2017. It is an even bigger disgrace in 2019. And what takes the biscuit is that Apple will sell you a more powerful charger but that still won't top what competitors give you outofthebox. If the problems ended there perhaps it would be a relief but they don't. Apple has lagged on battery duration too with Huawei now famed for the duration of its batteries. If that wasn't enough, we had Apple's own 'batterygate' slap bang in the middle of that period. Something that brought a double whammy with it. Bad press and accentuation of lost sales.
All four of those phones were presented and compared directly to Apple's best at the time. Of course the iPhones weren't shown in good light.
This means that come September, Apple must deliver an absolutely killer battery upgrade - and on every level. That just for starters.
I will bet my grandmother that the second they announce a faster charger out of the box it will get the biggest cheer of the day.
So, it is undeniable: Huawei is cutting into Apple's premium cake.
That has been happening since 2017 but if you drop to lower price points Huawei is sweeping up there too with its Honor phones. Apple will sell you last year's phones or even older phones with nary a price adjustment but Honor is actually competing with its own big sister as well as the rest of the industry. Two months after the Kirin 980 landed on a Huawei phone, it was shipping on an Honor phone too.
Apple moved to dual cameras because of the advantages they offered. Huawei was actually first with dual cameras and even 'portrait' mode so moving back to a single lens option on the XR was definitely a step back in terms of competing on a camera level and of course even Honor was shipping tri cameras when Apple moved back to a single camera.
We can say that camera versatility is where the puck is at in 2018/19. Wherever Apple is, there is no puck in sight.
Let's not even talk about pricing relative to what you get. For those who claim the price isn't the key but 'value', perhaps it's time to reflect on what has happened over the last two iPhone quarters and accept that the 'value' proposition isn't working very well when it comes to shifting phones.
How much value is there in a 5W charger?
Some will claim, as they always do, that the 'whole' is more than a spec list. Fine, well in that case, they need to re-evaluate if the 'spec list' really counts for value or not. For example when your phone loses track of you while on the road, or not, because your phone happens to have dual frequency GPS.
If dual SIM really is an advantage for you. If you would take advantage of internal storage etc.
When iPhone X launched with a non-gigabit modem some people here claimed that it wasn't needed. That, in spite of Huawei presenting the Mate 10 Pro in Las Vegas and presenting real world test results from San Francisco that blew the iPhone X out of the water. However, when the 2019 iPhones launched with gigabit modems, they were immediately compared with the previous generation iPhones and then the advantage was 'seen'. The problem was that the competition had already moved up to the next level and the new iPhones were behind again.
Ditto WiFi speeds.
If the phones were falling short when compared to the competition on the inside, they were also falling short on the outside. Apple simply hasn't done enough to make its phones 'turn heads'.
No phone is perfect and every manufacturer produces a dud from time to time. They can be duds for entirely different reasons but as things stand today, it should be at least understandable why Apple has not performed so well. The points raised above only skim the surface. It should be clear that the next refresh has to 'pull its socks up'. It should also be clear that competition is impacting iPhone.
Everybody was pretty underwhelmed by the Samsung 9 series (both 'S' and 'Note'). In some ways the 2018 iPhone refresh left a similar sensation.
Profits and ASP count for NOTHING when you are looking at phone purchases. They are company and investor concepts. Consumers look at other aspects.
The numbers are official. The 'colour' on those numbers includes guesstimates from the likes of IDC but what we have seen is reality: Three consecutive years of flat iPhone sales followed by a profit warning and another YoY double digit iPhone drop.
Whatever your point of view, the iPhone reality is stark. The good news is that Apple is still moving millions of phones every quarter and it has plenty of room for manouvre. It miscalculated big time but still has options to compete. It just has to do it. For that we'll have to wait for September.
Yes, they are estimates but by anyone's standards they are eyebrow raising. Even slicing them in half would make for shocking reading.
On the other hand we now how two consecutive quarters of Apple officially reporting serious stalling in its iPhone business. I think it was down around 17% in Q1 and 15% in Q2.
Q3 is traditionally a weak iPhone quarter anyway so I wouldn't expect any kind of turnaround in the near future.
Realistically, and I've said this a few times now, Apple has to get competitive again and on many levels. Current phones are too expensive for what they offer and if you check out cheaper Apple options they are last year's phones or even older. To add insult to injury they also look dated.
Huawei is definitely taking sales away from Apple at every price point while whipping Apple on technological advances. One after the other.
Mate 10 Pro (2017) P20 Pro (2018) Mate 20 Pro (2018) P30 Pro (2019)
Four phones on the trot that brought head turning advances. And while Huawei's 2017 models brought high power, fast, TüV certified charging (including reverse charging!), Apple's stuck with 5W one way charging out of the box. In 2019 they are shipping the exact same charger. It was a disgrace in 2017. It is an even bigger disgrace in 2019. And what takes the biscuit is that Apple will sell you a more powerful charger but that still won't top what competitors give you outofthebox. If the problems ended there perhaps it would be a relief but they don't. Apple has lagged on battery duration too with Huawei now famed for the duration of its batteries. If that wasn't enough, we had Apple's own 'batterygate' slap bang in the middle of that period. Something that brought a double whammy with it. Bad press and accentuation of lost sales.
All four of those phones were presented and compared directly to Apple's best at the time. Of course the iPhones weren't shown in good light.
This means that come September, Apple must deliver an absolutely killer battery upgrade - and on every level. That just for starters.
I will bet my grandmother that the second they announce a faster charger out of the box it will get the biggest cheer of the day.
So, it is undeniable: Huawei is cutting into Apple's premium cake.
That has been happening since 2017 but if you drop to lower price points Huawei is sweeping up there too with its Honor phones. Apple will sell you last year's phones or even older phones with nary a price adjustment but Honor is actually competing with its own big sister as well as the rest of the industry. Two months after the Kirin 980 landed on a Huawei phone, it was shipping on an Honor phone too.
Apple moved to dual cameras because of the advantages they offered. Huawei was actually first with dual cameras and even 'portrait' mode so moving back to a single lens option on the XR was definitely a step back in terms of competing on a camera level and of course even Honor was shipping tri cameras when Apple moved back to a single camera.
We can say that camera versatility is where the puck is at in 2018/19. Wherever Apple is, there is no puck in sight.
Let's not even talk about pricing relative to what you get. For those who claim the price isn't the key but 'value', perhaps it's time to reflect on what has happened over the last two iPhone quarters and accept that the 'value' proposition isn't working very well when it comes to shifting phones.
How much value is there in a 5W charger?
Some will claim, as they always do, that the 'whole' is more than a spec list. Fine, well in that case, they need to re-evaluate if the 'spec list' really counts for value or not. For example when your phone loses track of you while on the road, or not, because your phone happens to have dual frequency GPS.
If dual SIM really is an advantage for you. If you would take advantage of internal storage etc.
When iPhone X launched with a non-gigabit modem some people here claimed that it wasn't needed. That, in spite of Huawei presenting the Mate 10 Pro in Las Vegas and presenting real world test results from San Francisco that blew the iPhone X out of the water. However, when the 2019 iPhones launched with gigabit modems, they were immediately compared with the previous generation iPhones and then the advantage was 'seen'. The problem was that the competition had already moved up to the next level and the new iPhones were behind again.
Ditto WiFi speeds.
If the phones were falling short when compared to the competition on the inside, they were also falling short on the outside. Apple simply hasn't done enough to make its phones 'turn heads'.
No phone is perfect and every manufacturer produces a dud from time to time. They can be duds for entirely different reasons but as things stand today, it should be at least understandable why Apple has not performed so well. The points raised above only skim the surface. It should be clear that the next refresh has to 'pull its socks up'. It should also be clear that competition is impacting iPhone.
Everybody was pretty underwhelmed by the Samsung 9 series (both 'S' and 'Note'). In some ways the 2018 iPhone refresh left a similar sensation.
Profits and ASP count for NOTHING when you are looking at phone purchases. They are company and investor concepts. Consumers look at other aspects.
The numbers are official. The 'colour' on those numbers includes guesstimates from the likes of IDC but what we have seen is reality: Three consecutive years of flat iPhone sales followed by a profit warning and another YoY double digit iPhone drop.
Whatever your point of view, the iPhone reality is stark. The good news is that Apple is still moving millions of phones every quarter and it has plenty of room for manouvre. It miscalculated big time but still has options to compete. It just has to do it. For that we'll have to wait for September.
Bravo! Hear hear!
I can afford to change to the new iPhone model every year. And for apples customer service and familiarity with iOS I’m happy to pay the Apple tax. But what I’ve a problem with is when Apple rests on its hard-earned laurels and give excuses for its lack of urgency (wireless charging for instance) and innovation. While cutting corners with horrible earpiece and 5w chargers. Just so they can sell you a more expensive accessories.
Huawei is definitely taking sales away from Apple at every price point while whipping Apple on technological advances. One after the other.
Mate 10 Pro (2017) P20 Pro (2018) Mate 20 Pro (2018) P30 Pro (2019)
You state: "Huawei is definitely taking sales away from Apple", yet you don't have any data, or even anecdotal evidence, that iPhone users are switching to Huawei, even in China.
That may in fact be happening, but the anecdotal evidence that I have seen is iPhone users are keeping their iPhones longer, with a net positive gain in switchers from Android OS devices. Further data is that the iPhone user base continues to grow. This is essentially the same in the rest of the world.
Still, congratulations to Huawei for its great marketshare achievement.
"Regardless of the issues of ownership and control, which have been subjects of heated debate, Huawei’s struggle stems in part from its own internal conflict. The company has been deeply influenced by Western competitors. Huawei wants to help determine the world’s technological future, and Mr. Ren himself has said the company may need to adapt to get there.
But at its core, from its organizational structure to the way it builds employee loyalty, Huawei closely resembles the Chinese Communist Party itself."
Huawei is definitely taking sales away from Apple at every price point while whipping Apple on technological advances. One after the other.
Mate 10 Pro (2017) P20 Pro (2018) Mate 20 Pro (2018) P30 Pro (2019)
You state: "Huawei is definitely taking sales away from Apple", yet you don't have any data, or even anecdotal evidence, that iPhone users are switching to Huawei, even in China.
That may in fact be happening, but the anecdotal evidence that I have seen is iPhone users are keeping their iPhones longer, with a net positive gain in switchers from Android OS devices. Further data is that the iPhone user base continues to grow. This is essentially the same in the rest of the world.
Still, congratulations to Huawei for its great marketshare achievement.
"Regardless of the issues of ownership and control, which have been subjects of heated debate, Huawei’s struggle stems in part from its own internal conflict. The company has been deeply influenced by Western competitors. Huawei wants to help determine the world’s technological future, and Mr. Ren himself has said the company may need to adapt to get there.
But at its core, from its organizational structure to the way it builds employee loyalty, Huawei closely resembles the Chinese Communist Party itself."
No Huawei for me.
How frequently does Apple report on the "active installed base of devices by OS"? Is it being reported on a consistent basis? With flat sales for 3 years and down trend for last 2 quarters, I would imagine that the "active installed base of iOS devices" would flatten out pretty soon AND start to trend lower in couple of years. Unless Apple shares this data on a regular basis, this is all pure conjecture at this moment.
Huawei is definitely taking sales away from Apple at every price point while whipping Apple on technological advances. One after the other.
Mate 10 Pro (2017) P20 Pro (2018) Mate 20 Pro (2018) P30 Pro (2019)
You state: "Huawei is definitely taking sales away from Apple", yet you don't have any data, or even anecdotal evidence, that iPhone users are switching to Huawei, even in China.
That may in fact be happening, but the anecdotal evidence that I have seen is iPhone users are keeping their iPhones longer, with a net positive gain in switchers from Android OS devices. Further data is that the iPhone user base continues to grow. This is essentially the same in the rest of the world.
Still, congratulations to Huawei for its great marketshare achievement.
"Regardless of the issues of ownership and control, which have been subjects of heated debate, Huawei’s struggle stems in part from its own internal conflict. The company has been deeply influenced by Western competitors. Huawei wants to help determine the world’s technological future, and Mr. Ren himself has said the company may need to adapt to get there.
But at its core, from its organizational structure to the way it builds employee loyalty, Huawei closely resembles the Chinese Communist Party itself."
No Huawei for me.
How frequently does Apple report on the "active installed base of devices by OS"? Is it being reported on a consistent basis? With flat sales for 3 years and down trend for last 2 quarters, I would imagine that the "active installed base of iOS devices" would flatten out pretty soon AND start to trend lower in couple of years. Unless Apple shares this data on a regular basis, this is all pure conjecture at this moment.
"Apple announced its first-quarter earnings results today, and though the company reported that iPhone sales revenue fell 15 percent during the holiday quarter, it hit a new milestone for the number of active devices installed. Apple says there are now 1.4 billion active Apple devices, which basically covers anything running on one of the company’s software platforms; iPhones, Macs, iPads, Apple TVs, iPods, and Apple Watches are included in this category, while accessories like AirPods aren’t. Of those devices, 900 million are active iPhones in use, which is up 9 percent over the previous year, according to a stat CFO Luca Maestri gave in a Financial Timesinterview."
900 million users, 5 years ownership, is 180 million devices upgraded a year, without any new buyers at all; 150 million a year if they hold on to their iPhones for 6 years.
My supposition is that iPhone owners have the luxury of deciding when to upgrade, considering the inherent value of older iPhones, and the ease of trading in old models.
Me, I'll be passing down my iPhone 7 Plus to another iPhone user, for an iPhone X Max this fall.
You state: "Huawei is definitely taking sales away from Apple", yet you don't have any data, or even anecdotal evidence, that iPhone users are switching to Huawei, even in China
Data? You have me! I switched from iPhone.
Take a look at just about any comments section under a Huawei article and you will see plenty more examples.
Apple itself could show its hand and really let the cat out of the bag. It won't of course, in spite of having all the numbers down to the last Apple ID.
Data isn't available in any form that would be acceptable to you but, and I will repeat what I said:
Huawei is definitely taking sales away from Apple.
If you accept other sources of information, even if only anecdotal, there are plenty:
"Of those people who are upgrading, there are many switching from Apple to Chinese brands but very few switching from Chinese brands to Apple".
"CEO of Huishoubao which buys and resells used phones, said he has seen a consumer shift to Huawei from Apple, driven by the Chinese love of selfies and emphasis on camera quality"
"...which helped Huawei's share of the $500-$800 segment in China surge to 26.6 percent last year from 8.8 percent, data from research firm Counterpoint shows. Apple, by contrast, saw its share of the segment tumble to 54.6 percent from 81.2 percent".
Comments
IDC compares Kia to Mercedez. Emerging markets cant afford a phone that lasts and values stays so they prefer a throwaway cheap phones.
IDC next time tell us about sold smartphones not shipped
None. But who needs facts.
It’s $1000 for a pocket computer, not a phone. And a camera. And a camcorder. And a nav system. And a home automation remote. And a...
Since when did concern trolls start claiming profits don’t matter? About the time Apple started killing it in profits. Sorry, but in any meaningful discussion of a company’s health, it’s profits first. It’s the air corporations breathe. Market share is not.
”Not sure if this is a serious question, but Galaxy Fold is priced at $2,771 and I've never mentioned about comparing to the most expensive iphone. OP said about not going to pay $1,000 for a phone while Samsung priced its phone at almost $3,000.”
...2771 is close enough to 3 grand.
Yes, they are estimates but by anyone's standards they are eyebrow raising. Even slicing them in half would make for shocking reading.
On the other hand we now how two consecutive quarters of Apple officially reporting serious stalling in its iPhone business. I think it was down around 17% in Q1 and 15% in Q2.
Q3 is traditionally a weak iPhone quarter anyway so I wouldn't expect any kind of turnaround in the near future.
Realistically, and I've said this a few times now, Apple has to get competitive again and on many levels. Current phones are too expensive for what they offer and if you check out cheaper Apple options they are last year's phones or even older. To add insult to injury they also look dated.
Huawei is definitely taking sales away from Apple at every price point while whipping Apple on technological advances. One after the other.
Mate 10 Pro (2017)
P20 Pro (2018)
Mate 20 Pro (2018)
P30 Pro (2019)
Four phones on the trot that brought head turning advances. And while Huawei's 2017 models brought high power, fast, TüV certified charging (including reverse charging!), Apple's stuck with 5W one way charging out of the box. In 2019 they are shipping the exact same charger. It was a disgrace in 2017. It is an even bigger disgrace in 2019. And what takes the biscuit is that Apple will sell you a more powerful charger but that still won't top what competitors give you out of the box. If the problems ended there perhaps it would be a relief but they don't. Apple has lagged on battery duration too with Huawei now famed for the duration of its batteries. If that wasn't enough, we had Apple's own 'batterygate' slap bang in the middle of that period. Something that brought a double whammy with it. Bad press and accentuation of lost sales.
All four of those phones were presented and compared directly to Apple's best at the time. Of course the iPhones weren't shown in good light.
This means that come September, Apple must deliver an absolutely killer battery upgrade - and on every level. That just for starters.
I will bet my grandmother that the second they announce a faster charger out of the box it will get the biggest cheer of the day.
So, it is undeniable: Huawei is cutting into Apple's premium cake.
That has been happening since 2017 but if you drop to lower price points Huawei is sweeping up there too with its Honor phones. Apple will sell you last year's phones or even older phones with nary a price adjustment but Honor is actually competing with its own big sister as well as the rest of the industry. Two months after the Kirin 980 landed on a Huawei phone, it was shipping on an Honor phone too.
Apple moved to dual cameras because of the advantages they offered. Huawei was actually first with dual cameras and even 'portrait' mode so moving back to a single lens option on the XR was definitely a step back in terms of competing on a camera level and of course even Honor was shipping tri cameras when Apple moved back to a single camera.
We can say that camera versatility is where the puck is at in 2018/19. Wherever Apple is, there is no puck in sight.
Let's not even talk about pricing relative to what you get. For those who claim the price isn't the key but 'value', perhaps it's time to reflect on what has happened over the last two iPhone quarters and accept that the 'value' proposition isn't working very well when it comes to shifting phones.
How much value is there in a 5W charger?
Some will claim, as they always do, that the 'whole' is more than a spec list. Fine, well in that case, they need to re-evaluate if the 'spec list' really counts for value or not. For example when your phone loses track of you while on the road, or not, because your phone happens to have dual frequency GPS.
If dual SIM really is an advantage for you. If you would take advantage of internal storage etc.
When iPhone X launched with a non-gigabit modem some people here claimed that it wasn't needed. That, in spite of Huawei presenting the Mate 10 Pro in Las Vegas and presenting real world test results from San Francisco that blew the iPhone X out of the water. However, when the 2019 iPhones launched with gigabit modems, they were immediately compared with the previous generation iPhones and then the advantage was 'seen'. The problem was that the competition had already moved up to the next level and the new iPhones were behind again.
Ditto WiFi speeds.
If the phones were falling short when compared to the competition on the inside, they were also falling short on the outside. Apple simply hasn't done enough to make its phones 'turn heads'.
No phone is perfect and every manufacturer produces a dud from time to time. They can be duds for entirely different reasons but as things stand today, it should be at least understandable why Apple has not performed so well. The points raised above only skim the surface. It should be clear that the next refresh has to 'pull its socks up'. It should also be clear that competition is impacting iPhone.
Everybody was pretty underwhelmed by the Samsung 9 series (both 'S' and 'Note'). In some ways the 2018 iPhone refresh left a similar sensation.
Profits and ASP count for NOTHING when you are looking at phone purchases. They are company and investor concepts. Consumers look at other aspects.
The numbers are official. The 'colour' on those numbers includes guesstimates from the likes of IDC but what we have seen is reality: Three consecutive years of flat iPhone sales followed by a profit warning and another YoY double digit iPhone drop.
Whatever your point of view, the iPhone reality is stark. The good news is that Apple is still moving millions of phones every quarter and it has plenty of room for manouvre. It miscalculated big time but still has options to compete. It just has to do it. For that we'll have to wait for September.
EDIT (and pure coincidence):
https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2019/5/1/18525034/huawei-apple-samsung-smartphone-market-share-idc-2019
Bravo! Hear hear!
I can afford to change to the new iPhone model every year. And for apples customer service and familiarity with iOS I’m happy to pay the Apple tax. But what I’ve a problem with is when Apple rests on its hard-earned laurels and give excuses for its lack of urgency (wireless charging for instance) and innovation. While cutting corners with horrible earpiece and 5w chargers. Just so they can sell you a more expensive accessories.
That may in fact be happening, but the anecdotal evidence that I have seen is iPhone users are keeping their iPhones longer, with a net positive gain in switchers from Android OS devices. Further data is that the iPhone user base continues to grow. This is essentially the same in the rest of the world.
Still, congratulations to Huawei for its great marketshare achievement.
I'll throw this in about Huawei;
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/01/technology/huawei-china-communist-party.html
"Regardless of the issues of ownership and control, which have been subjects of heated debate, Huawei’s struggle stems in part from its own internal conflict. The company has been deeply influenced by Western competitors. Huawei wants to help determine the world’s technological future, and Mr. Ren himself has said the company may need to adapt to get there.
But at its core, from its organizational structure to the way it builds employee loyalty, Huawei closely resembles the Chinese Communist Party itself."
No Huawei for me.
How frequently does Apple report on the "active installed base of devices by OS"? Is it being reported on a consistent basis? With flat sales for 3 years and down trend for last 2 quarters, I would imagine that the "active installed base of iOS devices" would flatten out pretty soon AND start to trend lower in couple of years. Unless Apple shares this data on a regular basis, this is all pure conjecture at this moment.
https://www.theverge.com/2019/1/29/18202736/apple-devices-ios-earnings-q1-2019
That was in January of this year.
900 million users, 5 years ownership, is 180 million devices upgraded a year, without any new buyers at all; 150 million a year if they hold on to their iPhones for 6 years.
My supposition is that iPhone owners have the luxury of deciding when to upgrade, considering the inherent value of older iPhones, and the ease of trading in old models.
Me, I'll be passing down my iPhone 7 Plus to another iPhone user, for an iPhone X Max this fall.
Take a look at just about any comments section under a Huawei article and you will see plenty more examples.
Apple itself could show its hand and really let the cat out of the bag. It won't of course, in spite of having all the numbers down to the last Apple ID.
Data isn't available in any form that would be acceptable to you but, and I will repeat what I said:
Huawei is definitely taking sales away from Apple.
If you accept other sources of information, even if only anecdotal, there are plenty:
"Of those people who are upgrading, there are many switching from Apple to Chinese brands but very few switching from Chinese brands to Apple".
"CEO of Huishoubao which buys and resells used phones, said he has seen a consumer shift to Huawei from Apple, driven by the Chinese love of selfies and emphasis on camera quality"
"...which helped Huawei's share of the $500-$800 segment in China surge to 26.6 percent last year from 8.8 percent, data from research firm Counterpoint shows. Apple, by contrast, saw its share of the segment tumble to 54.6 percent from 81.2 percent".
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-tech-smartphones-analysis-idUSKCN1R30CS