muthuk_vanalingam

rogifan_new said:

Don’t get greedy Apple. No Apple Watch Edition stupidity. Remember how successful the iPhone SE was in comparison to the 5C. People will pay a “premium” but don’t want to feel like they’re being gouged. Don’t give consumers any reason to think of moving to S8.

Roxy Balboa said:

Android is the worst piece of junkware since Windows Vista.

Which Android are you talking about?

a) Stock Android in Nexus/Pixel phones

b) Near stock Android in Moto/Sony/HTC phones

c) Grace UX Android in Samsung phones

d) MIUI in Xiaomi phones

e) EMUI in Huawei phones

f) Various other Android versions in LG, Asus, Lenovo, Oppo, Vivo, TCL, Meizu and other phones

I know for a fact a) and b) are GOOD, definitely not junkware. c) is mostly accepted as functionally very good BUT criticized for having performance issues over a period of time. I don't have much knowledge about other Androids, to be able to comment on them. But the question to you is - Which Android are you talking about? Is it based on any personal experience? If yes, which one?

avon b7 said:

muthuk_vanalingam said:

avon b7 said:

The storage wasn't so much an 'upgrade' as a necessity. I'll bet on on a bigger upgrade this autumn although screen size will be a limiting factor. To have something is better than nothing. If they want to be courageous, then an affordable large screen option should be offered but it would cut into margins.

Do you think there is a "NEED" for Apple to do it in 2017 or 2018, with all the talks of upcoming super-cycle? I think it is premature to talk about it. May be early 2019 would be a better time to talk about this. What do you think?

With the emphasis on 'need', I see none at the moment, mainly because of the suspected supercycle and not knowing how the rumoured 7s will be priced. That's from a purely Apple/financial perspective.

From a user perspective I think there is a market for a larger screen, modern, affordable premium iPhone. A very big market.

Of course any such phone would immediately eat into the next tier up and very possibly the next tier down (SE). So what is in it for Apple? Potentially, users. If services as a revenue stream is to be developed, the more users, the more potential. You can take your services to the user (by providing them on Android etc) or, preferably​ get users to come to you, and one of the big drivers is the iPhone. And one of the biggest hurdles to real new growth is price.

At current price points. I see little margin for real unit growth, just cyclical movements.

Of course, Apple must evaluate its ability to retain current users and draw in switchers but with phone saturation having been reached and most features already available on any phone, the chances of pulling ahead of the pack at any given time are slim and short lived.

For example, one of the biggest rumoured features of the premium iPhone will be the under screen sensor but if Apple manages to be first, it won't be long at all before competitors offer their own solutions.

However, that feature isn't really as great an advance as we like to believe. It is still just a print scanner at the end of the day and a regular scanner does the job perfectly well even if it requires a physical space away from the display.

As an aside it's worth noting that mid range Android phones have actually become slightly more expensive over the last couple of years, not cheaper. I don't know if this is due to component costs or increased margins but it doesn't appear to have slowed sales down. 

robjn said:

The high price of the upcoming iPhone Edition (iPhone 8) is going to result in a lot of negative publicity.

An iPhone SE upgrade at around the same time would balance this out and send a strong message that Apple cares about all of it's customers.

An iPhone SE processor upgrade would be relatively easy to do - this would easily fly under the radar of the supply chain analysts.

The current A9 powered SE is already capable of running ARKit - which means it is still a more or less up to date device in terms of running software.

avon b7 said:

The storage wasn't so much an 'upgrade' as a necessity. I'll bet on on a bigger upgrade this autumn although screen size will be a limiting factor. To have something is better than nothing. If they want to be courageous, then an affordable large screen option should be offered but it would cut into margins.