Apple incapable of breaking the laws of thermodynamics and physics by continuing uninterrupted growth forever. Film at 11.
iPhone Sales Drop, and Apple’s 13-Year Surge Ebbs
221–230 of 551 posts
Re: iPhone Sales Drop, and Apple’s 13-Year Surge Ebbs
#222I run a repair shop. We've repaired over 3,000 Apple devices for customers. We are always chatting with our customers, so we get a ton of feedback from them about what they're doing with their phones. We hear a few things consistently: 1) Providers have switched from "free upgrades every 2 years" to a plan cost and a monthly phone cost, so people now really know how much their phone costs--and many would rather save…
In your experience what's the usual time between battery replacements? That's been the only "killer" for phones for me. With a decent case I feel like they otherwise last forever. My personal upgrade cycle usually involves someone else's (ex: spouse or parent) phone breaking, giving them mine, and buying a new one. Otherwise I'd probably still be on an iPhone 4.
2-3 years is average, depending on how much you use your phone. Battery replacements are cheap (we charge $49 for the 5 series right now) and quick to do.
Easiest way to know you need a battery replacement: Your phone gets to 40% or 20% and suddenly just dies on you. That means at least one cell in your battery is dead, and it's time to replace the whole battery.
Also, if your screen is edging up on the left side but isn't cracked or broken, that's a sign of an exploded or "puffy" battery. Usually people have the first issue for a while, don't realize what's happening, and then eventually it goes puffy and explodes. It can even break the screen when it does that.
As with other repairs, if you get a battery replacement at a repair shop, ask about the warranty. Replacement batteries can have real issues, and some runs of them have high defect rates. No big deal if the shop you work with has a good warranty and will just swap it out if it stops working.
Re: iPhone Sales Drop, and Apple’s 13-Year Surge Ebbs
#223Earlier quoted context omitted.
Some combination of wearables, AR/VR, IoT, and consumer 3D printing. The thing is a) those are all a few years out, b) they're interconnected. VR will happen first because it's got an obvious path to a large consumer base. That will lay groundwork for AR, which is probably the actual Next Big Thing. Wearables/IoT/3D printing are really an extension of the miniaturization/customization of longstanding technologies, bu…
I agree about VR and AR. As for the rest: wearables hadn't had a really strong use case - so it's either a niche or a fashion/status object - and maybe that's what will limit growth even when size/batteries gets solved ? IOT: cost is definitely a huge barrier, but will it be that huge deal ? or just another feature in the stuff we already buy - sold to us through the same big companies, with a few specialized product…
I'm with you on wearables - I've been trying to think of mass-market use cases for at least a year now, but I just can't find anything that's appealing outside of niche markets like disabilities and medical monitoring.
As for 3D printing, the biggest problem in my opinion is modeling, not printing itself. The cost of stereolithography printers is finally dropping, and extrusion printers are getting easier to use, but actually printing things is useless unless you have a model you can print. Most people just don't want to spend the time or effort to create a model, especially when you can walk into a store and get a higher quality item that's professionally designed and manufactured for dirt cheap.
Re: iPhone Sales Drop, and Apple’s 13-Year Surge Ebbs
#224I run a repair shop. We've repaired over 3,000 Apple devices for customers. We are always chatting with our customers, so we get a ton of feedback from them about what they're doing with their phones. We hear a few things consistently: 1) Providers have switched from "free upgrades every 2 years" to a plan cost and a monthly phone cost, so people now really know how much their phone costs--and many would rather save…
I think the reason most 6S's are rose gold is that it's the new latest color - i.e. you want the latest, and also to message that to everyone else? Get a rose-gold phone. Also, considering probably the vast majority of servicing of iPhones happens at an Apple genius bar, I'd say your (very informative) views of the population have some selection bias.
I'd also wonder if there's something that skews more people who have rose gold phones to break them? Maybe they're less likely to use a case because they want to show off the color? Or maybe rose gold skews younger (and therefore possibly less responsible with electronics)? Total guesses, but I'm pretty confident that rose gold is not the best selling color of iPhone currently, so it seems like something else must be going on.
Re: iPhone Sales Drop, and Apple’s 13-Year Surge Ebbs
#225$175 billion in buy backs?! Wow, its expensive propping up the share price to keep Wall Street happy... There is only so much hardware innovation, there are only so many people on the planet with $600 to spend on a mobile phone. Apple should really move whole heartedly into services (as evidenced by revenue up 20%); build a gmail / dropbox competitor - stop thinking of itself as a consumer hardware maker, that era is…
You don't know how buybacks work do you?
Explain then. I don't think he said anything incorrect.
Re: iPhone Sales Drop, and Apple’s 13-Year Surge Ebbs
#226Earlier quoted context omitted.
Providers have switched from "free upgrades every 2 years" to a plan cost and a monthly phone cost, so people now really know how much their phone costs--and many would rather save the $30 a month than upgrade their phone. Wasn't this why Apple was quietly introducting the "iPhone Upgrade Program"? http://www.apple.com/shop/iphone/iphone-upgrade-program Seems like Apple realized the future will be a place where every…
In Australia you always had to disclose the phone cost in a contract. People still keep upgrading phones.
Often it is a bit more complicated. The last one I did it had say a $30 monthly phone charge with a $15 rebate. I guess so they could make the pone look cheaper while just building the rest of the phone cost into the service cost.
Re: iPhone Sales Drop, and Apple’s 13-Year Surge Ebbs
#227Earlier quoted context omitted.
3D Force Touch was one of those features I feel would have only caught on, if it was one of the original iPhone features. Tacking it on later, with little to no support in apps, makes it forgetware. I actually really like the functionality, and I completely forget it exists. There needs to be some type of small indicator reminder that a button HAS 3D touch.
To me its real problem is that it's almost indistinct from long-press. Combine that with Apple's poor UX discoverability (I'm looking at you, swipe-from-the-side-to-see-iMessage-timestamps!) and 3D Touch is basically useless.
3D Touch should've replaced long press. I hate that I have to wait, I don't care that it's 0.4 of a second. A long press is a concession to the fact that there's no physical button, and 3D Touch should've solved this problem.
But instead I end up triggering a 3D Touch when I want to delete an app.
Re: iPhone Sales Drop, and Apple’s 13-Year Surge Ebbs
#228Well, 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…
Nexus 5 was phenomenally good though for the price point/no-crapware bundle. Coupled with Android finally being good enough to at least rival iOS, it was the start of a new era. Certainly in the UK, since buying my Nexus 5, android has gone from like 6% to 40% of mobiles hitting the websites I manage (the EU market has always been heavily iOS skewed compared to America). My battery crapped out rather quickly, but a r…
> The EU market has always been heavily iOS skewed compared to America
On the contrary! iOS relative to Android is more popular in the US than in the EU.
Re: iPhone Sales Drop, and Apple’s 13-Year Surge Ebbs
#229Incredible 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…
It's a bad report across the board...
AAPL YOY (year over year, not quarter) : iphone down 18% ipad down 19.5% mac down 9% revs down 13.5% eps down 18.5%
Re: iPhone Sales Drop, and Apple’s 13-Year Surge Ebbs
#230>Its newest smartphone, the four-inch iPhone SE, went on sale in late March, too late to affect the most recent quarterly results, but analysts hope to get more insight into how it is selling. Went to the Apple Store in my large metro and they were out of almost every model. The associate searched other stores and there wasn't much within 1500 miles. Anecdotal, but it looks like the demand is outpacing the supply of…
On the conference call, Cook mentioned that they are still supply constrained on the SE - they are still selling all they can build as fast as they build them.