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iPhone unit sales have been declining steadily for 5 years

zdnet.com

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Re: iPhone unit sales have been declining steadily for 5 years

#21

Post by Polylactic_acid »

tboughen wrote: post #10

I was disappointed that the article ends with “ Apple is losing new iPhone users at a drip-drip-drip pace” without considering how long a user is keeping their phone or why. I would have thought the number of iPhone users continues to rise even though annual unit sales are falling, due to the longevity of the devices. I’m typing this on my nearly 3 year old iPhone X and don’t intend to replace it until 2021 at the ea…

If you take a look at the ios device support charts you can see that the trend is that every iphone gets 1 year more support than the device before it. My 2014 ipad is getting the upcoming update while 2 year old android devices get cut off and budget models never get updates.

I got this 2014 ipad second hand recently and it works more than well enough. I expect this is a big reason for a drop in sales.

Re: iPhone unit sales have been declining steadily for 5 years

#23

Post by read_if_gay_ »

tasogare wrote: post #15
nobrains wrote: post #9

Off topic: Do you consider $99 $499 $1999 $99.99 etc. pricing to be unethical?

Why would it be? Rounding up is not a surhuman effort and if someone gets tricked by that they probably have bigger issues in life.

It does not follow that you have huge personal issues if you mistake a 59.99 price tag for 50 dollars and make a purchase, when you would’ve reconsidered it at $60. If that didn’t happen often enough, it wouldn’t be common practice.

Re: iPhone unit sales have been declining steadily for 5 years

#24

Post by chance_bear »

nobrains wrote: post #9

Off topic: Do you consider $99 $499 $1999 $99.99 etc. pricing to be unethical?

Perhaps, but there is a small benefit to the consumer. A whole number can indicate the brand is positioned towards upper-class consumers and that a price conscious consumer should look for cheaper alternatives.

It’s not a significant benefit, restaurants are the best application I can think of, but the harm that occurs from it is similarity miniscule.

Re: iPhone unit sales have been declining steadily for 5 years

#25

Post by rusticpenn »

ineedasername wrote: post #14
kvn_95 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And also the opting for the nuclear option when faced with defending their 30% app store commissions. I love Apple devices, but at some point no one can afford them anymore. Strangely, I noticed that this has happened before when Steve Jobs left Apple for the first time. At that point, Apple's product lineup keep getting more complex and more expensive, until Jobs came back and cut both the product count and pricing…

Yes, it used to be a single phone a year, pricier options were just for storage. Maybe that was too far in one direction, I don't know. But now it seems like too many, and I couldn't even tell you the real difference between the options, much less why I should spend $1500 on one of them when I can a 1.5 year old android flagship for $400 with CPU & GPU benchmarks only a little less that theirs, which is all I really…

The 400$ SE seems to be pretty awesome from my 1 month of usage.

Re: iPhone unit sales have been declining steadily for 5 years

#26

Post by HugThem »

wodenokoto wrote: post #17

The numbers on chart 1 and chart 2 do not match at all, even though they are supposed to be the same, just with different scalings. One has 2015 unit sales below 200 million, the other has it above 220 million. one has the trend line drawn from 2016 and the other starting in 2015. I think a good rule of thumb is to say, if the writer can't see that they made two completely different trend lines for the same thing, ri…

After one hour and 23 comments, you are the first one to notice it.

Shows that even on HN, the vast majority only reads the headline of an article.

Re: iPhone unit sales have been declining steadily for 5 years

#29

Post by chance_bear »

read_if_gay_ wrote: post #23
tasogare wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would it be? Rounding up is not a surhuman effort and if someone gets tricked by that they probably have bigger issues in life.

It does not follow that you have huge personal issues if you mistake a 59.99 price tag for 50 dollars and make a purchase, when you would’ve reconsidered it at $60. If that didn’t happen often enough, it wouldn’t be common practice.

Whether a price is $59.99 or $60.00 conveys a notable degree of information to the consumer. I wouldn’t be quick to assume it’s taking advantage of people’s innumeracy.

Re: iPhone unit sales have been declining steadily for 5 years

#30

Post by oefrha »

wodenokoto wrote: post #17

The numbers on chart 1 and chart 2 do not match at all, even though they are supposed to be the same, just with different scalings. One has 2015 unit sales below 200 million, the other has it above 220 million. one has the trend line drawn from 2016 and the other starting in 2015. I think a good rule of thumb is to say, if the writer can't see that they made two completely different trend lines for the same thing, ri…

I think 2014 unit sales was repeated as the 2015 number in the first chart. 2015 was historically the strongest, the second chart might be correct.

What’s more wrong about the article is the conclusion, that Apple is losing new iPhone users. It does not and cannot follow from the numbers at all.

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