And congressmen want to investigate Apple for being a monopoly.
Apple isn't even close to being a monopoly and that is not what calls for an investigate are focused on. Check your Funk and Wagnalls. Google and FB whose business is selling personal data they harvest from you are the primary targets. Apple is a secondary target in the US and a primary target in the socialist EU. The main issue with Apple is anti-trust claims in the operation of the app store and services.
Apple must not talk itself into believing that it cannot gain more market share. It must act aggressively, speed up the cycle, and push more variety of devices, i.e., do what they have done to the iPad line up to the iPhone line up.
The problem is price, plain and simple. In 2016 the flagship iPhone started at $649. One year later the flagship model was $999. Even the Xr which is supposed to be the more affordable model starts at $749, $100 more than the flagship from 2 years prior. It doesn’t matter if the tech inside the phone or the materials it’s made with are more advanced/expensive to manufacture. At the end of the day the average selling price of the iPhone has steadily been going up. And consumers are starting to say no thanks, I’ll keep what I’ve got it’s good enough.
With the X I think Apple was testing how much of a price increase the market would bear (and the higher ASP would allow them to show revenue growth even when sales were flat to down). I think they got their answer. I’d be surprised if there are any price cuts this year and I’ll bet the XS gets removed from the lineup. But I don’t think we’ll see any price increases or storage configurations that push up the price. And I’ll bet we see Apple aggressively pushing trade-ins again.
The problem with this statement is that the iPhone X sold really well.
That notch, the camera bump, and the price!! That’s the reason for the decline and if these renderings of what the next iPhone will look like with that square thing in the back of the phone for the camera it’s horrible looking I’m a big Apple fan but I have to admit these Samsung phones are beautiful maybe it’s best that Johnny Ives is no longer with Apple.
Apple must not talk itself into believing that it cannot gain more market share. It must act aggressively, speed up the cycle, and push more variety of devices, i.e., do what they have done to the iPad line up to the iPhone line up.
The problem is price, plain and simple. In 2016 the flagship iPhone started at $649. One year later the flagship model was $999. Even the Xr which is supposed to be the more affordable model starts at $749, $100 more than the flagship from 2 years prior. It doesn’t matter if the tech inside the phone or the materials it’s made with are more advanced/expensive to manufacture. At the end of the day the average selling price of the iPhone has steadily been going up. And consumers are starting to say no thanks, I’ll keep what I’ve got it’s good enough.
With the X I think Apple was testing how much of a price increase the market would bear (and the higher ASP would allow them to show revenue growth even when sales were flat to down). I think they got their answer. I’d be surprised if there are any price cuts this year and I’ll bet the XS gets removed from the lineup. But I don’t think we’ll see any price increases or storage configurations that push up the price. And I’ll bet we see Apple aggressively pushing trade-ins again.
The problem with this statement is that the iPhone X sold really well.
This affirmation is actually questionable for various reasons.
Apple never revealed any numbers beyond saying it was the most popular iPhone. It's all relative if the less popular iPhones weren't far behind iPhone X but didn't of course reach 'most popular' status. So, I think Apple made that claim for two or maybe three quarters and for the last quarter they said nothing.
That ties in with some analysts reporting at the time that iPhone X sales had dropped off faster than any other new release before it.
It was retired in the 2018 refresh and the first quarter of that cycle Apple issued a profit warning.
While we will probably never know all of what happened, it is very reasonable to speculate that the iPhone pool of purchasers simply ran out of 'financial steam' and sales dropped as a result.
As iPhone sales begin to taper off, won't cost for Apple go up as quantities go down? Meanwhile, iPhones last three, four, five years plus, either as single-owner or as second-hand & hand-me-downs. iPhones don't just get tossed in the trash when the owner upgrades. The value for $$$ is there. You just have to look for it.
Not to mention the fact that they continue to sell previous years models.
iPhone's installed base/market share is going to be just fine if you ask me. And as another poster pointed out; market share isn't something Apple's ever been truly worried about. Hopefully they never will. Maybe investors & analysts will some day figure this out... hah.
I’m just talking about the price to end consumer. I think the market is telling us people don’t want to spend $1000 on a phone. Or even $800. Hence the longer upgrade cycles.
You don't think Apple is playing the long game?
I mean we're hitting market saturation so it's a dicey place where just about everyone is going to have a "smartphone" so sales are going to begin tapering off quickly. Then cost of product starts going up. so how do you justify that? You have to make them better & better. Which costs $$. Which is why Apple has doubled down on the longevity of their products (and of course selling previous years models to get economy of scale). Those who can afford the latest & greatest will get it, and those who can't will get previous years models or pre-owned. Seems like a good strategy to me.
As an Apple investor and ecosystem user who has historically upgraded my phone every 1-2 years, I'm frustratingly not expecting to upgrade my 3 year old iPhone 7 this year because the current and anticipated line up of phones don't provide enough value. Give me a smaller phone (anything sized between a SE and iPhone 7) with current generation design and internals and at least 128GB storage for $750 or less and I'll upgrade today.
My upgrade cycle was longer than that. I finally upgraded to the Xs Max from my 5s. I think the big issue for many is the price point. I maxed out because I could and I also own Apple so I see it as eating my own dog food but many people just can't justify over $1k on a phone which is why the XR sold better. That said, the price-market share thing is a delicate balance. Sure Apple could increase marketshare by selling a $99 phone but capitalism is about making money and not subsidizing phones. The big change I see on the horizon is iPad OS and Apple's CPU lead. I may pick up an iPad pro as my new travel computer.
That notch, the camera bump, and the price!! That’s the reason for the decline and if these renderings of what the next iPhone will look like with that square thing in the back of the phone for the camera it’s horrible looking I’m a big Apple fan but I have to admit these Samsung phones are beautiful maybe it’s best that Johnny Ives is no longer with Apple.
A total of 12 people, world wide, care about the notch. Less so for the camera bump.
As an Apple investor and ecosystem user who has historically upgraded my phone every 1-2 years, I'm frustratingly not expecting to upgrade my 3 year old iPhone 7 this year because the current and anticipated line up of phones don't provide enough value. Give me a smaller phone (anything sized between a SE and iPhone 7) with current generation design and internals and at least 128GB storage for $750 or less and I'll upgrade today.
As an Apple investor and ecosystem user who has historically upgraded my phone every 1-2 years, I'm frustratingly not expecting to upgrade my 3 year old iPhone 7 this year because the current and anticipated line up of phones don't provide enough value. Give me a smaller phone (anything sized between a SE and iPhone 7) with current generation design and internals and at least 128GB storage for $750 or less and I'll upgrade today.
I 'upgraded' my iPhone 7 to an iPhone 8 and traded in the 7. That brought the price down to the sort of area that you mentioned.
That doesn’t bring the price down, typical salesmen trick. You still paid the value of your iPhone 7 + cash out of pocket. rogifan_new said:
With the X I think Apple was testing how much of a price increase the market would bear (and the higher ASP would allow them to show revenue growth even when sales were flat to down). I think they got their answer. I’d be surprised if there are any price cuts this year and I’ll bet the XS gets removed from the lineup. But I don’t think we’ll see any price increases or storage configurations that push up the price. And I’ll bet we see Apple aggressively pushing trade-ins again.
People only look at the cost of materials and don't really see the cost of engineering (software, hardware, and manufacturing) which goes into complete redesigns like the X. So it's not just "seeing how much of a price increase the market will bear", it's recouping the huge investment made in designing a brand new phone. All of the people who whine about lack of brand new phone designs need to understand that new designs cost money. Over time (up front investments are recouped, manufacturing processes are scaled and optimized), those brand new designs make their way down into the cheaper models and that's where the price cuts come. We're already seeing that with the XR.
I’m just talking about the price to end consumer. I think the market is telling us people don’t want to spend $1000 on a phone. Or even $800. Hence the longer upgrade cycles.
I used to upgrade my wife and I’s every 2 years like clock work. That stopped last year. Our iPhone 7 pluses were 880, which wasn’t cheap but I could deal with it based on the value. Now with the XS Max costing 1250 for something north of 64GB, that’s ridiculous. We are waiting at least until the 2020 iPhone to purchase again. Hopefully by then the XS Max will be 128GB for 1100 or less. Might even wait for deals to come along in 2021. Just not worth the prices anymore.
Apple must not talk itself into believing that it cannot gain more market share. It must act aggressively, speed up the cycle, and push more variety of devices, i.e., do what they have done to the iPad line up to the iPhone line up.
The problem is price, plain and simple. In 2016 the flagship iPhone started at $649. One year later the flagship model was $999. Even the Xr which is supposed to be the more affordable model starts at $749, $100 more than the flagship from 2 years prior. It doesn’t matter if the tech inside the phone or the materials it’s made with are more advanced/expensive to manufacture. At the end of the day the average selling price of the iPhone has steadily been going up. And consumers are starting to say no thanks, I’ll keep what I’ve got it’s good enough.
With the X I think Apple was testing how much of a price increase the market would bear (and the higher ASP would allow them to show revenue growth even when sales were flat to down). I think they got their answer. I’d be surprised if there are any price cuts this year and I’ll bet the XS gets removed from the lineup. But I don’t think we’ll see any price increases or storage configurations that push up the price. And I’ll bet we see Apple aggressively pushing trade-ins again.
The problem with this statement is that the iPhone X sold really well.
This affirmation is actually questionable for various reasons.
Apple never revealed any numbers beyond saying it was the most popular iPhone. It's all relative if the less popular iPhones weren't far behind iPhone X but didn't of course reach 'most popular' status. So, I think Apple made that claim for two or maybe three quarters and for the last quarter they said nothing.
That ties in with some analysts reporting at the time that iPhone X sales had dropped off faster than any other new release before it.
It was retired in the 2018 refresh and the first quarter of that cycle Apple issued a profit warning.
While we will probably never know all of what happened, it is very reasonable to speculate that the iPhone pool of purchasers simply ran out of 'financial steam' and sales dropped as a result.
As an Apple investor and ecosystem user who has historically upgraded my phone every 1-2 years, I'm frustratingly not expecting to upgrade my 3 year old iPhone 7 this year because the current and anticipated line up of phones don't provide enough value. Give me a smaller phone (anything sized between a SE and iPhone 7) with current generation design and internals and at least 128GB storage for $750 or less and I'll upgrade today.
As an Apple investor and ecosystem user who has historically upgraded my phone every 1-2 years, I'm frustratingly not expecting to upgrade my 3 year old iPhone 7 this year because the current and anticipated line up of phones don't provide enough value. Give me a smaller phone (anything sized between a SE and iPhone 7) with current generation design and internals and at least 128GB storage for $750 or less and I'll upgrade today.
I 'upgraded' my iPhone 7 to an iPhone 8 and traded in the 7. That brought the price down to the sort of area that you mentioned.
That doesn’t bring the price down, typical salesmen trick. You still paid the value of your iPhone 7 + cash out of pocket. rogifan_new said:
With the X I think Apple was testing how much of a price increase the market would bear (and the higher ASP would allow them to show revenue growth even when sales were flat to down). I think they got their answer. I’d be surprised if there are any price cuts this year and I’ll bet the XS gets removed from the lineup. But I don’t think we’ll see any price increases or storage configurations that push up the price. And I’ll bet we see Apple aggressively pushing trade-ins again.
People only look at the cost of materials and don't really see the cost of engineering (software, hardware, and manufacturing) which goes into complete redesigns like the X. So it's not just "seeing how much of a price increase the market will bear", it's recouping the huge investment made in designing a brand new phone. All of the people who whine about lack of brand new phone designs need to understand that new designs cost money. Over time (up front investments are recouped, manufacturing processes are scaled and optimized), those brand new designs make their way down into the cheaper models and that's where the price cuts come. We're already seeing that with the XR.
I’m just talking about the price to end consumer. I think the market is telling us people don’t want to spend $1000 on a phone. Or even $800. Hence the longer upgrade cycles.
I used to upgrade my wife and I’s every 2 years like clock work. That stopped last year. Our iPhone 7 pluses were 880, which wasn’t cheap but I could deal with it based on the value. Now with the XS Max costing 1250 for something north of 64GB, that’s ridiculous. We are waiting at least until the 2020 iPhone to purchase again. Hopefully by then the XS Max will be 128GB for 1100 or less. Might even wait for deals to come along in 2021. Just not worth the prices anymore.
Why not just get the XS? The screen sizes to your iPhone 7 are similar. Of course XS Max will be more expensive. Those screens are huge.
Apple must not talk itself into believing that it cannot gain more market share. It must act aggressively, speed up the cycle, and push more variety of devices, i.e., do what they have done to the iPad line up to the iPhone line up.
The problem is price, plain and simple. In 2016 the flagship iPhone started at $649. One year later the flagship model was $999. Even the Xr which is supposed to be the more affordable model starts at $749, $100 more than the flagship from 2 years prior. It doesn’t matter if the tech inside the phone or the materials it’s made with are more advanced/expensive to manufacture. At the end of the day the average selling price of the iPhone has steadily been going up. And consumers are starting to say no thanks, I’ll keep what I’ve got it’s good enough.
With the X I think Apple was testing how much of a price increase the market would bear (and the higher ASP would allow them to show revenue growth even when sales were flat to down). I think they got their answer. I’d be surprised if there are any price cuts this year and I’ll bet the XS gets removed from the lineup. But I don’t think we’ll see any price increases or storage configurations that push up the price. And I’ll bet we see Apple aggressively pushing trade-ins again.
The problem with this statement is that the iPhone X sold really well.
This affirmation is actually questionable for various reasons.
Apple never revealed any numbers beyond saying it was the most popular iPhone. It's all relative if the less popular iPhones weren't far behind iPhone X but didn't of course reach 'most popular' status. So, I think Apple made that claim for two or maybe three quarters and for the last quarter they said nothing.
That ties in with some analysts reporting at the time that iPhone X sales had dropped off faster than any other new release before it.
It was retired in the 2018 refresh and the first quarter of that cycle Apple issued a profit warning.
While we will probably never know all of what happened, it is very reasonable to speculate that the iPhone pool of purchasers simply ran out of 'financial steam' and sales dropped as a result.
Tim Cook said it sold well.
Your theories are irrelevant.
My theories are no more or no less relevant than yours.
Tim Cook saying it 'sold well' doesn't say much. If you only release three phones a year (or only two, prior to the X) but ship over 200 million handsets, it likely that sold well could be applied to all of them.
What the OP was referencing was that overall, prices for new releases had gone up. As a result people bought those new releases in smaller numbers.
What I was referencing was an extension to that logic. That, at any given time, there are only so many people who can reach those high prices. Some of them probably bought the iPhone X and most of those left the group of potential buyers as a result. Others may have been able to afford one but didn't see enough value in the Xr, Xs lines so opted out.
It's possible that when the 2018 refresh occurred (with those prices) there were simply far fewer takers.
At first Apple upped the promotion of financing deals on top of the regular upgrade/trade in offers.
As they went 'all hands' just before Christmas, they went one step further and introduced new trade in deals with bigger discounts and put them on the front page of the Apple websites. Originally they were called 'limited time' promotions. The last time I checked, they were still on the front page.
That tells us a lot about expectations and sales even in the absence of official numbers.
And if you want to quote Tim Cook, remember it was him who said Apple had miscalculated.
IMO, they miscalculated on various aspects and price was just one of them
I’m not an economist or marketing expert but these year-on-year growth/decline numbers of market share (not profit) seem so irrelevant to me that they are not worth discussing. Some experts may certainly read these differently, but my inner voice says these point to a very (or somewhat) consistent market picture. The market’s tectonic plates didn’t move so much as to create a 7.4 earthquake, fault lines just rearrange themselves with tiny adjustments.
When will idiot analysts realize Apple isn’t chasing volume.Or else apple could easily cut prices like Samsung & Huawei. Profitability & revenue matters more.
Yuuup. Apple doesn't worship at the Church of Market Share. they are all about profitability, and they've dominated that metric. What does Apple care if all the other knockoffs together sell more than one company selling just a few variations does?
Apple must not talk itself into believing that it cannot gain more market share. It must act aggressively, speed up the cycle, and push more variety of devices, i.e., do what they have done to the iPad line up to the iPhone line up.
The problem is price, plain and simple. In 2016 the flagship iPhone started at $649. One year later the flagship model was $999. Even the Xr which is supposed to be the more affordable model starts at $749, $100 more than the flagship from 2 years prior. It doesn’t matter if the tech inside the phone or the materials it’s made with are more advanced/expensive to manufacture. At the end of the day the average selling price of the iPhone has steadily been going up. And consumers are starting to say no thanks, I’ll keep what I’ve got it’s good enough.
With the X I think Apple was testing how much of a price increase the market would bear (and the higher ASP would allow them to show revenue growth even when sales were flat to down). I think they got their answer. I’d be surprised if there are any price cuts this year and I’ll bet the XS gets removed from the lineup. But I don’t think we’ll see any price increases or storage configurations that push up the price. And I’ll bet we see Apple aggressively pushing trade-ins again.
If this is anything to go by, the 5.8" iPhone is here to stay, at least for another year anyway.
I'm not sure what all the angst is for. Apple has always been at the top of the price lists, and always leads the market in sales of those pricy phones.
And, true to form, Apple XR was the top selling phone in the US in 2019 Q2 followed by iPhone XS and 8. Clearly, pricing is not the barrier for those wanting flagship phones. What this report says, if it's accurate, is that there were a few more cheaper phones sold in the quarter.
So what? Market share only matters to Wall Street. Since Apple is notoriously parsimonious with sales data, *estimated" market share is the only hook the Street has to hang its predictions on. Nobody looking at the company books is going to say "Wow, you are losing your ass financially, but you really have nice market share."
It is well understood that not everybody can afford high-priced phones (by anybody), and there is a market for lower-priced units. But as we all know, Apple chooses not to go after the lower end in any of their products, almost never has.
"Apple XR was the top selling phone in the US in 2019 Q2 followed by iPhone XS and 8."
iOS HW and SW has matured enough to be able to meet expectations of a substantial percentage of the user base. Apple kept profits growing for an while by marching the ASP up, but that has probably reached the point of demand destruction- paying $1000 for a cell phone is obscene.
"Apple is up against the good enough problem."
The entire smartphone segment is up against this problem.
Apple must not talk itself into believing that it cannot gain more market share. It must act aggressively, speed up the cycle, and push more variety of devices, i.e., do what they have done to the iPad line up to the iPhone line up.
The problem is price, plain and simple. In 2016 the flagship iPhone started at $649. One year later the flagship model was $999. Even the Xr which is supposed to be the more affordable model starts at $749, $100 more than the flagship from 2 years prior. It doesn’t matter if the tech inside the phone or the materials it’s made with are more advanced/expensive to manufacture. At the end of the day the average selling price of the iPhone has steadily been going up. And consumers are starting to say no thanks, I’ll keep what I’ve got it’s good enough.
With the X I think Apple was testing how much of a price increase the market would bear (and the higher ASP would allow them to show revenue growth even when sales were flat to down). I think they got their answer. I’d be surprised if there are any price cuts this year and I’ll bet the XS gets removed from the lineup. But I don’t think we’ll see any price increases or storage configurations that push up the price. And I’ll bet we see Apple aggressively pushing trade-ins again.
I agree with your points on pricing but I'm in the camp of seeing price cuts this year. I think Apple learned the lesson, that people reached their ceilings on price, that there was little to nothing really compelling on offer last year and that competition is ahead of them where it counts (on the most sought after features).
I know all the rumours point to another iterative upgrade this year so if there is room to stimulate sales, one of the options is to bring pricing down. There have been a few rumours about component cost being a deciding factor on some areas of this year's phones.
I also think there is room for a new SE type device (lower cost) with a higher screen to body ratio. The 6s, 7 series and 8 series don't fit well with today's entry level and mid rangers all sporting 'full' displays. It makes them look dated. Moving such a release out of the main release cycle (to say, March) would also serve a good purpose.
"The 6s, 7 series and 8 series don't fit well with today's entry level and mid rangers all sporting 'full' displays."
I disagree. If Apple took the 4.7" iPhone 8 and upgraded the camera to the exact same one used in the iPhone XR and upgraded the SoC to at least an A12, and removed 3D Touch, that would be a great entry-level / mid-range smartphone for $499 / $549
With the X I think Apple was testing how much of a price increase the market would bear (and the higher ASP would allow them to show revenue growth even when sales were flat to down). I think they got their answer. I’d be surprised if there are any price cuts this year and I’ll bet the XS gets removed from the lineup. But I don’t think we’ll see any price increases or storage configurations that push up the price. And I’ll bet we see Apple aggressively pushing trade-ins again.
People only look at the cost of materials and don't really see the cost of engineering (software, hardware, and manufacturing) which goes into complete redesigns like the X. So it's not just "seeing how much of a price increase the market will bear", it's recouping the huge investment made in designing a brand new phone. All of the people who whine about lack of brand new phone designs need to understand that new designs cost money. Over time (up front investments are recouped, manufacturing processes are scaled and optimized), those brand new designs make their way down into the cheaper models and that's where the price cuts come. We're already seeing that with the XR.
I’m just talking about the price to end consumer. I think the market is telling us people don’t want to spend $1000 on a phone. Or even $800. Hence the longer upgrade cycles.
Disagree on the why. For the first year in many years I didn’t upgrade annually, despite being a techie phone nerd. It wasn’t the price, I don’t really care about that. It was because my X is still a fine phone. They’re doing more, for longer. The low-hanging fruit days of dramatic incremental improvement is likely behind us as the product category matures.
I upgraded from the 6s that I purchased new when it was released, still in pristine condition, and still accomplishing (+ more) the features and capabilities that Apple represented to me at the time of sale. I upgraded to the iPhone X, "notch" was never an issue (not vain) and everything mentioned previously regarding the 6s goes for the X. There is absolutely nothing on the short or long term horizon that is an incentive for me to upgrade. I am happy with what I have. I do feel however that I will not pay $1,000.00 for a iPhone again. And before anyone brings up 5GE, I am already there.
Apple must not talk itself into believing that it cannot gain more market share. It must act aggressively, speed up the cycle, and push more variety of devices, i.e., do what they have done to the iPad line up to the iPhone line up.
Blah, blah, blah, yada, yada, yada. The Macintosh has never had more than a 10% share of the worldwide market and it has been a success for Apple all these years. Discerning customers see the value and TCO of Apple products and are very willing to pay the mythical Apple Tax. When has Apple EVER had a dominating share of ANY market? They have literally created or boosted markets out of thin air (personal computers, portable music players, smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, etc) only to see them dominated by cheap knock-offs and lookalikes. Through it all Apple has remained true to its mission statement to provide well designed, reliable, usable products that customers like to use. Again, tech blog forums like AI are filled with comments from a market segment that doesn’t value design, only cares about specs, and wants everything cheap.
Well said lkrupp. Appreciate your insight as always. It’s the same stuff every year Android phones is outselling Apple. Apple is losing market share. Apple remains focused on the core mission. Mistakes made yes but mission focused.
Except the core mission now seems to be extracting more money out of existing customers since hardware growth is stagnant. Which might be one reason why Jony Ive thought now was a good time to leave. The Apple of the future seems to be how can we get someone to spend $10 a month on x service.
Lord you try so hard. It’s like you have a moral objection to people spending their own money on services that are useful to them. Do you whine about people spending monthly on haircut services? Insurance services? Massage? Etc... there’s nothing wrong with services. Get over it. Nobody has a gun to your head if you don’t find value in the offerings.
Comments
The problem with this statement is that the iPhone X sold really well.
Apple never revealed any numbers beyond saying it was the most popular iPhone. It's all relative if the less popular iPhones weren't far behind iPhone X but didn't of course reach 'most popular' status. So, I think Apple made that claim for two or maybe three quarters and for the last quarter they said nothing.
That ties in with some analysts reporting at the time that iPhone X sales had dropped off faster than any other new release before it.
It was retired in the 2018 refresh and the first quarter of that cycle Apple issued a profit warning.
While we will probably never know all of what happened, it is very reasonable to speculate that the iPhone pool of purchasers simply ran out of 'financial steam' and sales dropped as a result.
As iPhone sales begin to taper off, won't cost for Apple go up as quantities go down? Meanwhile, iPhones last three, four, five years plus, either as single-owner or as second-hand & hand-me-downs. iPhones don't just get tossed in the trash when the owner upgrades. The value for $$$ is there. You just have to look for it.
Not to mention the fact that they continue to sell previous years models.
iPhone's installed base/market share is going to be just fine if you ask me. And as another poster pointed out; market share isn't something Apple's ever been truly worried about. Hopefully they never will. Maybe investors & analysts will some day figure this out... hah.
You don't think Apple is playing the long game?
I mean we're hitting market saturation so it's a dicey place where just about everyone is going to have a "smartphone" so sales are going to begin tapering off quickly. Then cost of product starts going up. so how do you justify that? You have to make them better & better. Which costs $$. Which is why Apple has doubled down on the longevity of their products (and of course selling previous years models to get economy of scale). Those who can afford the latest & greatest will get it, and those who can't will get previous years models or pre-owned. Seems like a good strategy to me.
That doesn’t bring the price down, typical salesmen trick. You still paid the value of your iPhone 7 + cash out of pocket. rogifan_new said: I used to upgrade my wife and I’s every 2 years like clock work. That stopped last year. Our iPhone 7 pluses were 880, which wasn’t cheap but I could deal with it based on the value. Now with the XS Max costing 1250 for something north of 64GB, that’s ridiculous. We are waiting at least until the 2020 iPhone to purchase again. Hopefully by then the XS Max will be 128GB for 1100 or less. Might even wait for deals to come along in 2021. Just not worth the prices anymore.
Tim Cook said it sold well.
Your theories are irrelevant.
Why not just get the XS? The screen sizes to your iPhone 7 are similar. Of course XS Max will be more expensive. Those screens are huge.
Tim Cook saying it 'sold well' doesn't say much. If you only release three phones a year (or only two, prior to the X) but ship over 200 million handsets, it likely that sold well could be applied to all of them.
What the OP was referencing was that overall, prices for new releases had gone up. As a result people bought those new releases in smaller numbers.
What I was referencing was an extension to that logic. That, at any given time, there are only so many people who can reach those high prices. Some of them probably bought the iPhone X and most of those left the group of potential buyers as a result. Others may have been able to afford one but didn't see enough value in the Xr, Xs lines so opted out.
It's possible that when the 2018 refresh occurred (with those prices) there were simply far fewer takers.
At first Apple upped the promotion of financing deals on top of the regular upgrade/trade in offers.
As they went 'all hands' just before Christmas, they went one step further and introduced new trade in deals with bigger discounts and put them on the front page of the Apple websites. Originally they were called 'limited time' promotions. The last time I checked, they were still on the front page.
That tells us a lot about expectations and sales even in the absence of official numbers.
And if you want to quote Tim Cook, remember it was him who said Apple had miscalculated.
IMO, they miscalculated on various aspects and price was just one of them
iOS
Android
EU5
-0,008
0,006
US
-0,015
0,025
Japan
-0,055
0,060
China
0,03
-0,05
I’m not an economist or marketing expert but these year-on-year growth/decline numbers of market share (not profit) seem so irrelevant to me that they are not worth discussing. Some experts may certainly read these differently, but my inner voice says these point to a very (or somewhat) consistent market picture. The market’s tectonic plates didn’t move so much as to create a 7.4 earthquake, fault lines just rearrange themselves with tiny adjustments.
you mean followed by the XS Max & iPhone 8.
The entire smartphone segment is up against this problem.
I disagree. If Apple took the 4.7" iPhone 8 and upgraded the camera to the exact same one used in the iPhone XR and upgraded the SoC to at least an A12, and removed 3D Touch, that would be a great entry-level / mid-range smartphone for $499 / $549
This is normal. This is fine.
I upgraded to the iPhone X, "notch" was never an issue (not vain) and everything mentioned previously regarding the 6s goes for the X. There is absolutely nothing on the short or long term horizon that is an incentive for me to upgrade. I am happy with what I have. I do feel however that I will not pay $1,000.00 for a iPhone again.
And before anyone brings up 5GE, I am already there.
Lord you try so hard. It’s like you have a moral objection to people spending their own money on services that are useful to them. Do you whine about people spending monthly on haircut services? Insurance services? Massage? Etc... there’s nothing wrong with services. Get over it. Nobody has a gun to your head if you don’t find value in the offerings.