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iPhone Sales Drop, and Apple’s 13-Year Surge Ebbs

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Re: iPhone Sales Drop, and Apple’s 13-Year Surge Ebbs

#151

Post by vtlynch »

FussyZeus wrote: post #117
bsirkia wrote: post #47

Incredible that this is the first time in 13 years that Apple hasn't posted quarterly growth. I'm sure there will be lots of "Apple has lost its ability to innovate" articles based on this, but growing for the last ~52 straight quarters is insane. And I don't think one quarter without growth is enough evidence to conclude "Apple may be reaching the saturation point among potential customers in some countries" or "oth…

Apple doesn't innovate terribly much, there were smart phones before the iPhone, the iPhone was just a better one. There were tablets before the iPad and the iPad was just a better tablet. Apple's strength isn't in coming up with NEW things, I would say quite the opposite as they're usually very late into any given market. Apple's strength is coming up with products that are better than the ones that came before, in…

Since when does innovating really mean making something new? I think that already has its own word: inventing.

"Innovating" is a business buzz word. Its not meaningless, but I think that its meaning is far from inventing/creating.

Re: iPhone Sales Drop, and Apple’s 13-Year Surge Ebbs

#152

Post by deegles »

matwood wrote: post #98
jonknee wrote: post #32

tl;dr it's hard to find lots of new people every quarter who can afford $600 phones.

Or it's just gadget saturation in general. My MBP from a few years ago works great. Some of the older iPads I have at work are just fine. The iPhone 6/6+ also works just great. At some point, the marginal utility of a new device just isn't there. It is what happens as markets mature.

My iPad v1 still works. Not great, but it's still around.

Re: iPhone Sales Drop, and Apple’s 13-Year Surge Ebbs

#153

Post by IkmoIkmo »

Well, they had a good run. I wonder what's next.

I don't think anyone was surprised though, around 2014 we saw the writing on the wall. I mean take the Nexus 5, I have plenty of friends who have one and it's basically like they bought a microwave. It just works, it's fine, and they're expressing 0, and I really mean 0 interest in upgrading their microwave. They'll keep it for as long as the battery lasts and they don't break it. And that's really a last-generation phenomenon, before two years ago I was looking forward to new mobile tech. Now the changes aren't meaningful anymore.

And now people are openly expressing it, too. Like the CEO of sony, who spoke about the end of innovation in smartphones a few months ago. I mean take my dad, he just bought an LG G3 for $8 a month on a 2 year contract. Now this phone is 2 years old, not top of the line... but it's $8 a month and it comes with a nice screen that's almost double the PPI of the latest iphone, 3gb of ram, a nice snapdragon 801 chip, 3000 mAh battery, it just works fine and it's just really cheap. In two years, the latest G5 will be $200 too, and you'll buy G3 like phones for $100. What can we innovate in smartphones that's worth $700 to most people? That used to buy you a magical device that could do things nothing else could, in your pocket just a few years ago.

Anyway, I wonder what's next for Apple. There's no rumours of anything happening except its car. Wearables will expand. But they're all late or super late to market in these product categories. That's not a bad thing, they'll obviously make money, but it's not comparable to creating a real smartphone industry.

Re: iPhone Sales Drop, and Apple’s 13-Year Surge Ebbs

#154

Post by matt_wulfeck »

mmanfrin wrote: post #79
matt_wulfeck wrote: post #70

I'm curious what other people think about the ecosystem as a catalyst, in particular Apple Pay. It seems to be that squeezing between iPhone owners and everyday purchases would be very lucrative.

It seems to be that squeezing between iPhone owners and everyday purchases would be very lucrative And something that Banks will very strongly oppose. How many places can you use Apple Pay right now? I love Android Pay, but the only store I can use it at is Walgreens -- no where else I go takes it. Banks still hold a huge amount of power at the point-of-sale market, and they will not give up their margins to Apple.

I was at a small bookstore in Palo Alto and they accepted Apple Pay without even knowing it themselves. It really depends on the retailer and if they upgraded their POS terminals.

That being said I use it at trader joes and sprouts, and when Starbucks finishes rolling out Apple Pay I'll use it there too.

It's just very convenient and fast. It makes chip and pin cards seem like five steps backwards.

Re: iPhone Sales Drop, and Apple’s 13-Year Surge Ebbs

#155

Post by Nicholas_C »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #76
rrggrr wrote: post #13

50.6b net income on 39.4% gross margins. A bit early to be writing Apple's obituary or anything even close. Retail is suffering nationwide and I suspect Apple is caught up in this decline.

Forget "nationwide", China is currently getting ready to drop like a cliff. That they are buying fewer iPhones isn't surprising.

Now? Next month? Next year? People have been saying that (and betting on that) for quite a while.

Re: iPhone Sales Drop, and Apple’s 13-Year Surge Ebbs

#156

Post by ericabiz »

revelation wrote: post #66
ericabiz wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All depends on the cost of parts. Part cost is very low right now...I advise people to get it fixed ASAP if they have the money! You never know what it will do--part cost bounces around like the stock market. Last year it bounced really high there for a bit, and now it's come back down. The backlight, LCD, digitizer (touch "web"), and top glass are all one piece. They come bonded from the factory. I never recommend g…

Where do you source parts from? Does Apple sell these like a car manufacturer would? The whole electronics repair business seems rather immature and shady compared to something like car repair. For a car make, you can easily get the software manufacturers give to repair shops which has all sorts of exploded assembly views, instructions and part lists.

No, Apple doesn't sell parts, though it would be nice if they did.

The main way screens appear in the repair business is from companies in China that buy back screens with broken glass but functional LCD. They then replace the glass with new glass. Most of the screen is OEM, but not the top glass. They then ship these to repair shops and distributors, who use them to replace screens.

That's why I mentioned in a previous comment that it's all about the warranty with a repair shop. No shop will warranty a cracked or broken screen, but most decent shops will warranty digitizer (touch) issues as long as there's no physical damage to the screen. That type of warranty is a must-have--there are only a small percentage of screens that go bad after a few days or weeks of use, but it really sucks if you get one and the shop refuses to replace it.

> The whole electronics repair business seems rather immature and shady compared to something like car repair.

Well, both are shady (plenty of YouTube exposes on oil change places that upsell services, charge for them, and don't perform them.) Honestly, one of the reasons I came into this industry was I was aware of the huge need for a non-shady repair shop in Austin, TX (where I live.) We're the highest-rated independent repair shop in Austin, and we take that pretty seriously, since there are so many horror stories of bad computer/game console/phone repair shops out there. We do our best to do right by our customers.

Re: iPhone Sales Drop, and Apple’s 13-Year Surge Ebbs

#157

Post by qaq »

mongol wrote: post #111
mmanfrin wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems to be that squeezing between iPhone owners and everyday purchases would be very lucrative And something that Banks will very strongly oppose. How many places can you use Apple Pay right now? I love Android Pay, but the only store I can use it at is Walgreens -- no where else I go takes it. Banks still hold a huge amount of power at the point-of-sale market, and they will not give up their margins to Apple.

Can Apple become a bank?

They can buy any +/- any bank

Re: iPhone Sales Drop, and Apple’s 13-Year Surge Ebbs

#158

Post by petra »

FussyZeus wrote: post #117
bsirkia wrote: post #47

Incredible that this is the first time in 13 years that Apple hasn't posted quarterly growth. I'm sure there will be lots of "Apple has lost its ability to innovate" articles based on this, but growing for the last ~52 straight quarters is insane. And I don't think one quarter without growth is enough evidence to conclude "Apple may be reaching the saturation point among potential customers in some countries" or "oth…

Apple doesn't innovate terribly much, there were smart phones before the iPhone, the iPhone was just a better one. There were tablets before the iPad and the iPad was just a better tablet. Apple's strength isn't in coming up with NEW things, I would say quite the opposite as they're usually very late into any given market. Apple's strength is coming up with products that are better than the ones that came before, in…

In the past this has been true because their exceptional design skills. But companies learned that skill, it's not unique to Apple anymore. So for example, the Apple watch isn't objectively significantly better than Google's Watch OS.

But Apple still has a lot of resources and capabilities it can deploy to make something a sucsess, like any other big company, so maybe that's what we should except from the current Apple - altough considering the circumstances - this can be very lucrative.

Re: iPhone Sales Drop, and Apple’s 13-Year Surge Ebbs

#159

Post by Spooky23 »

FussyZeus wrote: post #117
bsirkia wrote: post #47

Incredible that this is the first time in 13 years that Apple hasn't posted quarterly growth. I'm sure there will be lots of "Apple has lost its ability to innovate" articles based on this, but growing for the last ~52 straight quarters is insane. And I don't think one quarter without growth is enough evidence to conclude "Apple may be reaching the saturation point among potential customers in some countries" or "oth…

Apple doesn't innovate terribly much, there were smart phones before the iPhone, the iPhone was just a better one. There were tablets before the iPad and the iPad was just a better tablet. Apple's strength isn't in coming up with NEW things, I would say quite the opposite as they're usually very late into any given market. Apple's strength is coming up with products that are better than the ones that came before, in…

The options prior were half-dead PalmOS, Windows CE devices like the iPaq, and the Blackberry.

The blackberry was the ultimate pager, but didn't have a functional web browser. The Windows device was pretty much awful, and PalmOS was waiting for euthanasia.

Re: iPhone Sales Drop, and Apple’s 13-Year Surge Ebbs

#160

Post by oxide »

allisthemoist wrote: post #104
bsirkia wrote: post #47

Incredible that this is the first time in 13 years that Apple hasn't posted quarterly growth. I'm sure there will be lots of "Apple has lost its ability to innovate" articles based on this, but growing for the last ~52 straight quarters is insane. And I don't think one quarter without growth is enough evidence to conclude "Apple may be reaching the saturation point among potential customers in some countries" or "oth…

"Apple may be reaching the saturation point (of the products it currently sells) among potential customers in some countries"

Apologies in advance if this is a dumb question.

What is Apple's next move once it saturates the market?

Or, more generally, what is the next move once you've saturated a market?

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