iPhone SE already seeing strong sales, Android switchers
Despite the extraordinary circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic, Apple has reported strong sales of its newly launched iPhone SE. But the company isn't seeing customers scaling down buying decisions to save money, as pundits have predicted.
Despite not being relevant to Apple's second fiscal quarter, the iPhone SE was repeatedly mentioned in Apple's quarterly earnings call on April 30, with the company's chief financial officer Luca Maestri similarly listing it among the recent releases that "have all received outstanding customer response, even during these extreme circumstances."
It was widely expected that the new iphone, driven by Apple's A13 Bionic chip that's faster than much more expensive Androids, would be popular. But, pundits also expected that buyers would significantly scale down their purchasing decisions to save money, due to financial impacts.
Jeriel Ong, an analyst with Deutsche Bank, specifically asked "about the overall purchasing decisions that consumers are making" during the earnings call, raising the question, "have you seen an increased perhaps downtick across your product line? So for example, somebody might have shifted maybe toward the lower end of the storage mix of certain products. And do you expect that going forward, as unemployment upticks and macro impacts kind of layer on through the rest of 2020?"
"I haven't seen what you're asking. No," Cook answered. "I have seen a strong customer response to iPhone SE, which is our most affordable iPhone. But it appears that those customers are primarily coming from wanting a smaller form factor with the latest technology, or coming over for it from Android. So, those are the two principal kinds of segments versus somebody buying down, as you're talking about it."
Rather than seeing a shift away from premium products, Cook noted continued strong sales of higher-end products in parallel.
"We've also seen, we launched the iPad Pro in the midst of all of this and the reception there has also been incredibly good. And that's obviously our top of the line iPad," Cook added. "And so, I'm not seeing what you're alluding to, at least at this point."
iPhone SE "well received"
Apple's chief executive Tim Cook included the new iPhone SE in a list of new product releases, "all of which have been very well received by reviewers and consumers alike." That list also included the new iPad Pro, its Magic Keyboard, and a revamped MacBook Air that debuted shortly before iPhone SE was announced.Despite not being relevant to Apple's second fiscal quarter, the iPhone SE was repeatedly mentioned in Apple's quarterly earnings call on April 30, with the company's chief financial officer Luca Maestri similarly listing it among the recent releases that "have all received outstanding customer response, even during these extreme circumstances."
It was widely expected that the new iphone, driven by Apple's A13 Bionic chip that's faster than much more expensive Androids, would be popular. But, pundits also expected that buyers would significantly scale down their purchasing decisions to save money, due to financial impacts.
Coming over from Android
Jeriel Ong, an analyst with Deutsche Bank, specifically asked "about the overall purchasing decisions that consumers are making" during the earnings call, raising the question, "have you seen an increased perhaps downtick across your product line? So for example, somebody might have shifted maybe toward the lower end of the storage mix of certain products. And do you expect that going forward, as unemployment upticks and macro impacts kind of layer on through the rest of 2020?"
"I haven't seen what you're asking. No," Cook answered. "I have seen a strong customer response to iPhone SE, which is our most affordable iPhone. But it appears that those customers are primarily coming from wanting a smaller form factor with the latest technology, or coming over for it from Android. So, those are the two principal kinds of segments versus somebody buying down, as you're talking about it."
Rather than seeing a shift away from premium products, Cook noted continued strong sales of higher-end products in parallel.
"We've also seen, we launched the iPad Pro in the midst of all of this and the reception there has also been incredibly good. And that's obviously our top of the line iPad," Cook added. "And so, I'm not seeing what you're alluding to, at least at this point."
Comments
That is Tim 'Punter' Cook speaking.
It is literally way too soon to draw conclusions and, given the unpredictability of the situation, why Tim 'CEO' Cook chose to give no guidance for the next quarter.
I was referring to the 'punters' getting it all wrong while Tim Cook was himself wearing his punter hat.
In late December 2019, we decided to jump to a 16" Mac Book Pro fully loaded for myself and a similar model for my wife but with only 4TB of storage. We both still had the last year of the 17" model tricked out with max memory that we retrofitted and SSD drives we retrofitted as we could make these improvements over time. Our 16" models are all soldered in place so acquiring a fully loaded model was to future proof as much as is possible.
My IIFx Mac cost over $6,000 at the time and then we needed a color monitor, video card, more memory and hard drive that pushed the price way over $10,000 in 1990s dollars. Those numbers make the new Mac Pro numbers almost seem reasonable.
They could be using the Move to IOS app I suppose.
I told people that cheaper iPhones would see Android switchers. People don't like Android, they can't afford iPhone. Why would anyone in their right mind prefer the knockoff? They don't.
Funny story:
My friend just switched from a new Sansung iWannabe to an iPhone 5C!!
I'm saying the derogative 'punter' reference is worthless as we are all punters to some degree and that includes Tim Cook.
In the real world punters (including Apple big wigs) sometimes get things right and sometimes get things wrong. That's what guessing games are all about. And yes, 'punters' have very much got things right too.
It's easier to place your bet the longer into a process you are, but right now not even Tim Cook can know how things will play out. It's simply too early. It's hard in a normal quarter let alone this one. He is a punter like everyone else. He has been from the start. The only difference is as things progress he has the advantage of real data to go on. That isn't the case now. This could literally go in any direction over the next few months.
People switch from Android every day. They switch to Android too. Apple's cheapest and 'newest' phone is selling well (just like many new Android handsets) . Stating the obvious in the title and nothing more, given the micro snapshot that is being used to base the claim on. When has a new iPhone not sold well immediately after release?
Currency and sales tax make the SE a far harder sell here but clearly not as striking as that difference in India.
I think the SE will perform well for a variety of reasons (not least that price fatigue among iPhone users was taking root) but very much doubt Android users will see the same value proposition with pricing touching 500€.
It has nothing to do with what Tim said. That is irrelevant. It was to do with the perspective he was saying it from.
Punter vs CEO. I even made it crystal clear. Twice!