Well, if Apple were to make a 'larger' device, without hurting their profit margins, it would be priced higher. I'm not sure many people want to pay an extra $100 (that seems to be Apple's going rate for feature additions) for a larger phone, especially with carriers deciding subsidies are bad. At this point, unless they've found a manufacturer that can make larger screens at a slightly lower cost than the 4" screen, I don't see a new larger iPhone appearing at the same cost of the 5S. That may change by September, however.
Sure, they could make a 'mid-range' phone, but they already HAVE a mid-range phone called the iPhone 5C. True, it's priced higher than people would like, but at this point in time, Apple can't manufacture the device cheap enough to reduce the price by the amount people want without angering investors. The iPhone 5/5C's hardware is the lowest end I can see Apple going with. It would be counterproductive to go down to the A5 - they might as well have kept the iPhone 4/4S around if they're going to do that.
Why do you assume a slightly larger screen would necessarily be more expensive? It may or may not and might even be the same or cheaper. The iPad Mini retina is only $399 and they are making a profit and it uses the A7 the same one in the iPhone 5s. Why is it so inconceivable that Apple could not make a profit at $459 in a phone?
Why do you assume a slightly larger screen would necessarily be more expensive? It may or may not and might even be the same or cheaper. The iPad Mini retina is only $399 and they are making a profit and it uses the A7 the same one in the iPhone 5s. Why is it so inconceivable that Apple could not make a profit at $459 in a phone?
It depends. If the 6 will be 4" and the 6+ will 4.5 or so, the latter would be $50-100 more.
When or if Apple does a larger screened phone, you are going to see some technology that enabled it that wasn't available till now. For example, it will be IGZO backplaned, or maybe LTPS.
But, you say, iPhones have been LTPS for years. Correct, but Apple used so much of the world output of LTPS (was it 70%?) that there was only scraps left for Amazon and Google's giveaway tablets.
Apple is not going to release a larger phone until they can supply 30 million or so decent retina LCD screens with good battery life per quarter . Not possible until now, if it's possible at all. Tim Cook says no tradeoffs, he means no tradeoffs. If you want to argue with this, be prepared for withering detail.
I agree, until there is enough supply of high end displays and improved battery technology to drive them, Apple won't do it. Apple doesn't want to have the big screened phone that you have to keep plugged in to use. Granted, larger screens allow for larger devices and batteries. Who knows, maybe we're already at a point where energy density is 'good enough' for a larger screened iPhone to last all day.
Quote:
Originally Posted by soulsearcher
Why do you assume a slightly larger screen would necessarily be more expensive? It may or may not and might even be the same or cheaper. The iPad Mini retina is only $399 and they are making a profit and it uses the A7 the same one in the iPhone 5s. Why is it so inconceivable that Apple could not make a profit at $459 in a phone?
I was under the impression that the Mini and Mini Retina were lowering profit margins, thus my comment on the phone needing to be more expensive (or wait till the prices on displays, batteries, and larger device casings come down) to maintain profit margins and appease shareholders. But like I said, it's possible that by September, the costs will have been reduced enough to do it at the same price as the 5S. Let's break out the magic 8 ball and see what it says.
Regarding the bigger phone argument going on, I personally think Apple let Samsung grew much bigger without bigger screen phone. Letting your enemy/copycat grow bigger produces more damage compared to lost profits!
Poor Blackberry got crushed because of Tim Cook not bringing in bigger size phone
If you have money buy the Stock. It is going higher in 2014!
She could convince me to buy a jacket for $900. Sorry but Tim Cook has no mojo.
Co-CEOships rarely work out. Yes, Samsung has "co-CEOs," but most companies need a single person in charge. Otherwise internal politics creates a proble.
It was not overvalued. Profits were growing 30%+ YoY which justified a PE ratio of 18 and a share price of $700.
But then Cook messed up. First by not releasing the iPhone5 with a bigger screen. That move alone allowed Samsung to sell over 200,000,000 Galaxy phones in the next 2 years. Those 200,000,000 sales would have allowed Apple to continue to grow at least 20% a year. Then Cook messed up because he did not see smartphone saturation and did not release mid range phones. Instead Samsung dominated that area and took profits of close to $25 Billion.
A lot of people would have purchased Samsung phones regardless. Not everyone is looking solely for a larger screen. Believe it or not, some people prefer Android. As for the mid-range, it isn't very profitable. Samsung makes most of its profit from the same segment as Apple. Note that Apple still makes more money from mobile than Samsung, even with less than half the market share.
Co-CEOships rarely work out. Yes, Samsung has "co-CEOs," but most companies need a single person in charge. Otherwise internal politics creates a proble.
Sammy needs two because one CEO must have deniability while the other bribes the govt.
Its not about hardware profits. The goal should be to gain 1,000,000,000 users and then profit off of services and software. At this point Apple has about 400,000,000 users.
Sell AAPL. Buy GOOG. And never speak of this nonsense again.
Its taking FRIKEN THREE YEARS to finally bring out a bigger smartphone. Thats RIDICULOUS!!
Jobs knew that the future wasn't phones with massive screens and he's still right. Cook only signed off a slightly larger screen to keep "bigger is better" idiots happy.
I don't really understand all this malarkey about a larger iPhone. I'm more than happy with the size of the iPhone5s and wouldn't want anything larger. Just shouting about something all the time doesn't make it a fact . . .
What is worst the fad has already run its course. There is just so much room in ones pocket for a brick.
Have you even bothered to read up on the history of Apple and Steves management of the company. He screwed up more things than you realize. Many of the engineers building the products of the future had to hide what they where doing from Steve so that the work would not get canned. There is no basis for your Steve worship.
He did anticipate demand with the iPod, iPhone, iTunes, App Store, and iPad. He did.
Again you are simply uninformed.
Now name me ONE THING Cook anticipated? ONE THING.
How would anybody here answer that question?
He anticipated a demand for a $550 cheap looking plastic iPhone. WRONG!
There is nothing wrong with that phone, people wanted that finger print sensor more than anything. The fact is there is no way to predict customer up take for any product, be it a Cabbage Patch Doll or a plastic iPhone.
He Fuking didn't even produce enought 5S phones this holiday season!!! What a f'ing joke.
Do you really think Cook is happy about that?
Then didn't make enought iPadMini Retina. WTF!!!!
Same thing last year with iPadMini, iPhone5, and iMac.
All this means is that demand moves into the next quarter. It is exceptionally bad economics to build factories to serve a few weeks of early adopters. Given that though yeah it would have been nice to better predict the demand split between the top of the line models and the 5C. Companies get this wrong all the time which is often why you see dumping of product into alternative channels.
Comments
I wonder what Angela Ahrendts' views are on a larger phone...
Well, if Apple were to make a 'larger' device, without hurting their profit margins, it would be priced higher. I'm not sure many people want to pay an extra $100 (that seems to be Apple's going rate for feature additions) for a larger phone, especially with carriers deciding subsidies are bad. At this point, unless they've found a manufacturer that can make larger screens at a slightly lower cost than the 4" screen, I don't see a new larger iPhone appearing at the same cost of the 5S. That may change by September, however.
Sure, they could make a 'mid-range' phone, but they already HAVE a mid-range phone called the iPhone 5C. True, it's priced higher than people would like, but at this point in time, Apple can't manufacture the device cheap enough to reduce the price by the amount people want without angering investors. The iPhone 5/5C's hardware is the lowest end I can see Apple going with. It would be counterproductive to go down to the A5 - they might as well have kept the iPhone 4/4S around if they're going to do that.
Why do you assume a slightly larger screen would necessarily be more expensive? It may or may not and might even be the same or cheaper. The iPad Mini retina is only $399 and they are making a profit and it uses the A7 the same one in the iPhone 5s. Why is it so inconceivable that Apple could not make a profit at $459 in a phone?
That's where my confusion comes from. Thx.
I wonder what Angela Ahrendts' views are on a larger phone...
LOL Nicely done, sir.
It depends. If the 6 will be 4" and the 6+ will 4.5 or so, the latter would be $50-100 more.
You can't deal with the truth.
Revenue up only 7% last 4 qtrs.
profits down 9%
Wow... and it can use the Ctrl-V keys as well!
Make it CEO!
Hey look, some realism!
When or if Apple does a larger screened phone, you are going to see some technology that enabled it that wasn't available till now. For example, it will be IGZO backplaned, or maybe LTPS.
But, you say, iPhones have been LTPS for years. Correct, but Apple used so much of the world output of LTPS (was it 70%?) that there was only scraps left for Amazon and Google's giveaway tablets.
Apple is not going to release a larger phone until they can supply 30 million or so decent retina LCD screens with good battery life per quarter . Not possible until now, if it's possible at all. Tim Cook says no tradeoffs, he means no tradeoffs. If you want to argue with this, be prepared for withering detail.
I agree, until there is enough supply of high end displays and improved battery technology to drive them, Apple won't do it. Apple doesn't want to have the big screened phone that you have to keep plugged in to use. Granted, larger screens allow for larger devices and batteries. Who knows, maybe we're already at a point where energy density is 'good enough' for a larger screened iPhone to last all day.
Why do you assume a slightly larger screen would necessarily be more expensive? It may or may not and might even be the same or cheaper. The iPad Mini retina is only $399 and they are making a profit and it uses the A7 the same one in the iPhone 5s. Why is it so inconceivable that Apple could not make a profit at $459 in a phone?
I was under the impression that the Mini and Mini Retina were lowering profit margins, thus my comment on the phone needing to be more expensive (or wait till the prices on displays, batteries, and larger device casings come down) to maintain profit margins and appease shareholders. But like I said, it's possible that by September, the costs will have been reduced enough to do it at the same price as the 5S. Let's break out the magic 8 ball and see what it says.
It's not the size that counts it's how you use it?
So in total Mr Cook has lost investors $150,000,000,000 after netting out div/buyback.
I think that should be enough to get anyone FIRED.
No one 'lost' anything. It was overvalued then, and undervalued now.
Better get yourself an education in finance before you play with the big boys in the market.
Oh, people who (as Cramer puts it) 'schnitzled', as you should have, above $600 made a bundle.
Regarding the bigger phone argument going on, I personally think Apple let Samsung grew much bigger without bigger screen phone. Letting your enemy/copycat grow bigger produces more damage compared to lost profits!
Poor Blackberry got crushed because of Tim Cook not bringing in bigger size phone
If you have money buy the Stock. It is going higher in 2014!
She should be CO-CEO or take Tim Cooks job.
She could convince me to buy a jacket for $900. Sorry but Tim Cook has no mojo.
Co-CEOships rarely work out. Yes, Samsung has "co-CEOs," but most companies need a single person in charge. Otherwise internal politics creates a proble.
It was not overvalued. Profits were growing 30%+ YoY which justified a PE ratio of 18 and a share price of $700.
But then Cook messed up. First by not releasing the iPhone5 with a bigger screen. That move alone allowed Samsung to sell over 200,000,000 Galaxy phones in the next 2 years. Those 200,000,000 sales would have allowed Apple to continue to grow at least 20% a year. Then Cook messed up because he did not see smartphone saturation and did not release mid range phones. Instead Samsung dominated that area and took profits of close to $25 Billion.
A lot of people would have purchased Samsung phones regardless. Not everyone is looking solely for a larger screen. Believe it or not, some people prefer Android. As for the mid-range, it isn't very profitable. Samsung makes most of its profit from the same segment as Apple. Note that Apple still makes more money from mobile than Samsung, even with less than half the market share.
Sammy needs two because one CEO must have deniability while the other bribes the govt.
Its not about hardware profits. The goal should be to gain 1,000,000,000 users and then profit off of services and software. At this point Apple has about 400,000,000 users.
Sell AAPL. Buy GOOG. And never speak of this nonsense again.
Or just block him.
I’m not a “fingers in my ears” kind of person. Why would anyone want Apple to stop making money on what makes them money?
Its taking FRIKEN THREE YEARS to finally bring out a bigger smartphone. Thats RIDICULOUS!!
Jobs knew that the future wasn't phones with massive screens and he's still right. Cook only signed off a slightly larger screen to keep "bigger is better" idiots happy.
What is worst the fad has already run its course. There is just so much room in ones pocket for a brick.