robbyx

rogifan_new said:

This tweet too is spot on:

Rene Ritchie (@reneritchie) 1/2/19, 5:24 PM IMHO, complaints about pricing, price points, home buttons, headphone jacks, batteries, upgrade cycles, etc. are all valid but are also all besides the point, which remains:  Can Apple transition iPhone from growth driver to platform that enables more growth drivers?  That’s it.

This is pretty spot on.  Apple has hundreds of millions of iPhone customers.  How do you get those people to buy more things?  And what are those things?  Clearly they aren't Macs.  They are AirPods, however.  And Apple Music subscriptions.  Video is the logical next step.

As someone who has bought Apple products (and stock) for almost 40 years, I remember many long years where Apple sold 1 device for every 1000 the other guys sold.  They struck silver with the iPod and then gold with the iPhone.  The iPod appealed to all sorts of people.  You didn't have to be a techie.  Apple built a better mousetrap and the public responded.  And then came the iPhone.  Everyone needs a phone.  Apple built a better phone and, again, the public responded.  So what else has incredibly broad appeal and needs a better use experience?  And is Apple even the company to deliver these days?  I personally wish they'd focus more on home automation and deliver some killer first party products in that area.  I also think they should get serious about audio, maybe buy Sonos.  HomePod was a huge miss.  I would have bought at least 6 for my house if it wasn't such a gimped product.

rogifan_new said:

robbyx said:

rogifan_new said:

robbyx said:

avon b7 said:

magman1979 said:

And right on cue, the salivating trolls come marching onto EVERY Apple site in existence by the truckload!

Forget trolls. What is your opinion on what is happening on iPhone? 

The rest of the business seems to be doing ok. They have a lot of cash reserves to pull on. That won't save them from a roller coaster ride, short term, but iPhone is suffering. Do you agree with TCs line or do you think he is airbrushing bits? Are prices too high? Is competition playing a part? Are iPhones underperforming on features? Etc.

The smartphone market is mature. I can easily afford the top of the line iPhone model, but I see no reason to upgrade from my 7 Plus. I think a lot of people feel this way.  Even if Apple dropped prices tomorrow, I still wouldn’t upgrade.  My 7 Plus is great. I’d like FaceID, but that’s not enough of a reason to upgrade. 

I dont think prices are the issue. There are iPhone models under $500.  Top of the line is very pricey, but Apple has nice offerings at several price points. The market is saturated and mature and this was bound to happen. 

If price wasn’t an issue why did Tim keep mentioning subsidies going away? Why did he mention not marketing the trade-in program enough? Both of those things scream price issues. Which was obvious when the front page of apple.com was displaying this:

I know many people with older phones and none of them WANT to upgrade. They don’t care about pricing. They are satisfied with their current devices. I was just helping a friend with her Mac today. It’s 8 years old and works fine.  She sees no reason to upgrade. The same thing is happening with phones.

As I said, Apple has phone models at a variety of price points. Stop focusing on the top of the line.  Phones are mature. The tech is mature. There aren’t a lot of new features. Faster, better screen, better camera...yawn. My phone is fast enough and the camera is fine. The days of annual upgrades are over.

Price is a factor, but it’s not the issue. 

I don’t think higher prices is the only factor but it is A factor. It’s not like upgrade cycles just started lengthening this year. It’s possible too that the XR just introduced confusion to the lineup. People weren’t sure what to buy so they didn’t buy anything.

That could be, but I think it really comes down to how good these devices have become. We don’t upgrade our computers or any other piece of tech yearly. It’s crazy to buy a new phone every year, especially when there aren’t many new features. Truly new features, not just improved tech. At some point we reach “good enough” and I think that happened with the 7, maybe even the 6s. Upgrade cycles have been getting longer and longer ever since.

If Apple dropped the price of the XS by 20% tomorrow, I doubt it would impact overall sales very much.  I think Apple could move more devices with promotions like a free year of Apple Music and/or increased iCloud storage amounts. After the first year, your customer is hooked and keeps paying.  The “first world” (I hate that term) is saturated. Dropping prices alone won’t solve the problem. In the “developing” (I hate that term too) world, price is key. They need a cheap, break-even device that brings people into the ecosystem and gets them hooked on services.  As much as I hate to think of Apple as a services company, that is the logical source of revenue growth. Recurring monthly charges.

fallenjt said:

Shtz...Luckily, I dumped all AAPL in my regular investment and left only $5000 of this stock in IRA account. 

Time will tell. My dad’s cost basis is $0.07/share. People have predicted Apple’s demise forever, yet I doubt many investments would have given my dad the same return over the past few decades.  You just have to have a strong stomach as an Apple investor because their share price isn’t remotely grounded in reality.  They are probably the most emotionally charged/manipulated security on the market. 

titantiger said:

I upgraded last year to an 8.  I'd love to have an XS Max but just can't bite that big a bullet one year later.

I think the unspoken story here is that Apple got too ambitious with the price increases across their product line.  Price of entry on everything went up significantly.

Not really. An entry level iPad is cheaper today than when the iPad was first released. Same goes for an iPhone. You can get a new iPhone for under $500. What did a new iPhone (without subsidies) cost when it launched?  Much more.  Everyone is so focused on the top of the line prices. They are expensive, maybe too expensive, but that’s not the problem.

rogifan_new said:

robbyx said:

avon b7 said:

magman1979 said:

And right on cue, the salivating trolls come marching onto EVERY Apple site in existence by the truckload!

Forget trolls. What is your opinion on what is happening on iPhone? 

The rest of the business seems to be doing ok. They have a lot of cash reserves to pull on. That won't save them from a roller coaster ride, short term, but iPhone is suffering. Do you agree with TCs line or do you think he is airbrushing bits? Are prices too high? Is competition playing a part? Are iPhones underperforming on features? Etc.

The smartphone market is mature. I can easily afford the top of the line iPhone model, but I see no reason to upgrade from my 7 Plus. I think a lot of people feel this way.  Even if Apple dropped prices tomorrow, I still wouldn’t upgrade.  My 7 Plus is great. I’d like FaceID, but that’s not enough of a reason to upgrade. 

I dont think prices are the issue. There are iPhone models under $500.  Top of the line is very pricey, but Apple has nice offerings at several price points. The market is saturated and mature and this was bound to happen. 

If price wasn’t an issue why did Tim keep mentioning subsidies going away? Why did he mention not marketing the trade-in program enough? Both of those things scream price issues. Which was obvious when the front page of apple.com was displaying this:

I know many people with older phones and none of them WANT to upgrade. They don’t care about pricing. They are satisfied with their current devices. I was just helping a friend with her Mac today. It’s 8 years old and works fine.  She sees no reason to upgrade. The same thing is happening with phones.

As I said, Apple has phone models at a variety of price points. Stop focusing on the top of the line.  Phones are mature. The tech is mature. There aren’t a lot of new features. Faster, better screen, better camera...yawn. My phone is fast enough and the camera is fine. The days of annual upgrades are over.

Price is a factor, but it’s not the issue.