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Decline in iPhone Shipments Could Make Apple Worst-Performing Top 5 Smartphone Brands

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Walpurgis

Banned
I've always been an Android guy but I have noticed that whenever I go to the store to buy a new phone, the equivalent iPhone costs hundreds more and has worse specs. Maybe people have begun to realise that.
 
It's actually more amazing to me that the top 5 smartphone brands are Samsung, oppo, vivo, huawei and apple. Who saw that a few years ago? Whither LG and Sony?
 

Kurdel

Banned
The better the phones get, the less incentive there is to upgrade, so this is totally normal in my eyes.

The source of this "report" does seem unreliable though.
 
All this 16GB talk is just some indirect form of price-complaining. It's not as if Apple doesn't sell any other sizes.

The thing is that Apple is not selling a 32GB model. 16GB is too small and 64GB is too big and it feels like you're forced to pay a premium for it.
 
I guess they are reaching saturation point in the market they cater to. After reaching the one billion mark in devices sold, or I think activated, I'm not too surprised. A examination of what the iPhone could be for the rest of the 6 billion people on the planet, and how the next billion can buy one, might be needed. After all,it has almost been a decade since the first iPhone.

The traditionally high prices apple charge for their devices play a part in what I mentioned above, I understand they do it for the profit margins, however people on a iPhone 5s onwards don't see much of a reason to upgrade, as they would have to shell out high price, the death of two years contracts in the US adds to this.

Before the cost of the phone was spread out, now it's front and centre for the customer to see. I'm no economist, but I guess even in these post recession times, the full cost of a iPhone is a hard pill to swallow for a lot of people. Especially for those who rely on the cost of the phone to be spread out so they can upgrade. As it is they look at their still decent 5s, on the latest iOS version, and continue to use it. Maybe trade it in towards another one with a new battery and more storage space, through a 3rd party seller.

Sure the iPhone se caters towards this demographic, however it's geared towards getting those holdouts onto more modern hardware and making the iPhone users re-invest in the apple ecosystem. Nothing wrong with that at all. It's a shrewd business move.

But in a post-jobsidian era where the chinese and Asian competition has proved they can beat apple on both specs and price even on the iPhone se level, more is needed. The Chinese are knocking it out of the park, xiaomi is fucking itching to get into the West, patent wars withstanding, and huawei Western expansion is going very well. These two, especially the first, have the ability to be disruptive in the market place.

The rumoured uptake of amoled screens for the 2017 iphone is a good starting point to gain back the growth they had a little while ago. Apple has a brilliant understanding of software and hardware, the amoled screens will provide a boost to sales, and user experience.

Samsung has also put there best foot forward with the s7 and it shows. It's been very well received both critically and commercially. They are also number one in the fastest growing mobile market, India. Which apple is growing in, but again the Chinese and home grown mobile providers are ahead and already vying to one up another.

This might seem all doom and gloom, but remember, apple is a one of the wealthiest companies on the earth. They earn billions and billions of profit each year. They are in no danger at all of going bankrupt over night. They can last, probably, decades based on how they currently are. It's a money making machine that holds 90 PERCENT of the overall profits made on smartphones.


But the decline is happening. You don't order less parts if sales are going to stay the same. The climate, much like real life is changing, and apple would be best served to see how they can adapt.
 
Upgrades are definitely held back. I am sure Apple has some absolutely amazing ideas that they're holding off on. Whether you think it's bad practice or not, Apple will make small updates as long as they can. If they make a truly amazing upgrade in any of their devices, they know they'll set the bar incredibly high and will be expected to deliver these huge upgrades on a regular basis.

I have an iPhone but I had a Galaxy S6 and loved it. My girlfriend has an iPhone, though, and sometimes communicating with her is difficult, so the Apple Ecosystem was the only reason I went back to the iPhone. I had an iPhone my entire smartphone life prior to the S6 and obviously went back, but it was nice to see where the competition is going.
 

Kurdel

Banned
The age of Apple is done!

You will see 600$ iPhone and Apple Watch bundles before Apple is done, and people will buy them in droves.

People still see Apple as a premium brand as evidenced by the people in here, we will see them lower their profit margins before we see them scale back significantly.
 
when you're paying a premium and still getting 16gb base models with no expansion options what do you think is going to happen?

The iphone is mainly a North American product. When i travel i rarely see iphones anywhere else. In some areas they're pretty much just a status symbol.

They need to change up. It's getting ridiculous.

You obviously haven't been to the UK then, iPhones are very common here, around a third I would say are iPhone.
 

nib95

Banned
IPhone's are not good value for money and way behind the curve on so many things. Hopefully more and more consumers are picking up on this. Oh and if they really do drop the 3.5mm port in the next iPhone in place of even more thinness and more proprietary nonsense, I hope it bites them in the ass.
 
I have noidea why they got rid of last gens naming conventions, C brand seemed to sell really well with younger people.
Kinda like how MS threw away the 520 brand.
 

cw_sasuke

If all DLC came tied to $13 figurines, I'd consider all DLC to be free
Apple is safe because they locked in many customers with their Appstore and iTunes purchases - sunken costs are too high for many to consider a switch.

They would have to really screw up for these customers to switch - like a clearly inferior smartphone for like 1000usd and no cheaper option...lol.
 

SURGEdude

Member
I hope this doesn't mean they start to cut back on their awesome long term support. iPhones hold so much value I usually can sell mine for 70-80% of the price I payed for it a year or so later.

I'd rather they tackle the silly 16GB upsell game they've been playing. It's just not good for customers having to decide between an extra hundred bucks or a seriously crippled experience. The move to 64 bit and ever increasing app sizes and cameras doesn't help matters either.

It's not a bad time for them to really go all in on the watch though. They already have a commanding presence in the market outside of cheap fitness trackers and the growth predictions for that sector mean it's worth the effort to entrench themselves as much as possible. It's never gonna be smartphone big but if they could become the defacto brand they could see a repeat of the iPod situation in the next decade or so.
 

br3wnor

Member
Apple is safe because they locked in many customers with their Appstore and iTunes purchases - sunken costs are too high for many to consider a switch.

They would have to really screw up for these customers to switch - like a clearly inferior smartphone for like 1000usd and no cheaper option...lol.

Such a SICK burn!

Or maybe people with iPhones don't switch when they upgrade because they like their phone? I don't have any iTunes purchases and have spent MAYBE $40 on apps/games over the 4 years I've had an iPhone. I switched to Android for 2 weeks in 2013 and went right back to iPhone, it wasn't about sunk cost, I simply enjoyed my iPhone experience more.

The condescending attitude of android users that all iPhone consumers are idiots who don't know that they're getting "ripped off" is really awful.
 
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe this assumption is being based on the idea that the iPhone 7 will look extremely similar to the 6S line, with the expected "big changes" not coming until 2017. If so, I'd say it's less about "peak iPhone" than it is about consumers wanting the new look. Aren't S-years usually the years when sales growth slows? If the rumors are true, 2016's iPhone will be an S-year in all but name.

Besides, I wouldn't go weeping over Apple anytime soon, even if they do suffer the "massive" failure of only selling 200 million new iPhones. They've still managed to account for 40% of all profit made in Silicon Valley, with revenue at $234 billion (by comparison, the second highest revenue for the year came from Google, at $74 billion...). They also saw the largest YoY profit growth, at $9.3 billion over the previous year.

They're going to be fine for the foreseeable future.

http://9to5mac.com/2016/04/25/apple...0-of-all-profits-in-silicon-valley-last-year/
 

gamz

Member
Such a SICK burn!

Or maybe people with iPhones don't switch when they upgrade because they like their phone? I don't have any iTunes purchases and have spent MAYBE $40 on apps/games over the 4 years I've had an iPhone. I switched to Android for 2 weeks in 2013 and went right back to iPhone, it wasn't about sunk cost, I simply enjoyed my iPhone experience more.

The condescending attitude of android users that all iPhone consumers are idiots who don't know that they're getting "ripped off" is really awful.

What he said wasn't wrong, and you could love the product and eco. I'm sure their are people who would try something else but they have a ton invested in the ecosystem.
 

gamz

Member
Even if we bring up Apples optimization and say "similar" specs the comparison is awful. Why should I buy and iPhone 6s Plus when the Nexus 6p is just as good, and in many ways better, as well as $250 less.

Because you like ios and Apple ecosystem?


Specs aren't everything.
 

Kurdel

Banned
Even if we bring up Apples optimization and say "similar" specs the comparison is awful. Why should I buy and iPhone 6s Plus when the Nexus 6p is just as good, and in many ways better, as well as $250 less.

Do whatever you want and buy what you prefer.

I rarely see Apple people try to convince Android users to switch, but Android user on the other hand are the Jehova Witnesses of cellphones.
 
Because you like ios and Apple ecosystem?


Specs aren't everything.

I don't? It is a factor and many people who are tech fans and pay attention to newer phones will jump ship.

Do whatever you want and buy what you prefer.

I rarely see Apple people try to convince Android users to switch, but Android user on the other hand are the Jehova Witnesses of cellphones.

I never said I was against people buying iPhones, just that the price vs specs issue could be a factor for some people.
 

gamz

Member
I never said it didn't, but to say that no one jumped ship due to the spec issues is just being obtuse. I know 3 personally. Not saying it's a huge widespread issue, but it does happen.

I'm sure people do. I have friends who jumped to android and then jumped back to Apple. I don't think Apple getting into a spec war will ever be a thing. Nor do they have to be.
 
I never said it didn't, but to say that no one jumped ship due to the spec issues is just being obtuse. I know 3 personally. Not saying it's a huge widespread issue, but it does happen.

I'm looking for this claim in the thread and I can't find it. Just you babbling about specs in a thread about sales numbers.
 
I'm sure people do. I have friends who jumped to android and then jumped back to Apple. I don't think Apple getting into a spec war will ever be a thing. Nor do they have to be.

I never said they had to either? They dominate the market and make an insane profit on each iPhone sold. They'd honestly be nuts to get in the spec war.

I'm looking for this claim in the thread and I can't find it. Just you babbling about specs in a thread about sales numbers.

Scroll up like 2 posts, I said it was a factor for some and he said no it wasn't.
 

wachie

Member
The Fortune posts are not behind a paywall. Feel free to read them if you want to question his analyst ranking system. The Fortune posts are strictly based on sales estimates, which is a easy measure as you can compare it to the actual numbers, and sales estimates (and not whether Apple will use a TouchID in its next iPad) is the subject of the thread.
This makes as much sense as the "Apple is dooomed lol" posts.

You post a figure that Kuo is 56% wrong. And when I question the legitimacy of said figure, you are asking me to look at another ranking system. I get that the guy is credible but I dont know how he ranks the rumors/predictions/leaks and not just the numbers stuff. I also dont know how other analysts rank in his evaluation, especially ones who give as much detail and publish as many reports as Kuo.
 
I don't? It is a factor and many people who are tech fans and pay attention to newer phones will jump ship.



I never said I was against people buying iPhones, just that the price vs specs issue could be a factor for some people.

A spec comparison is silly here, considering iOS is optimized to run on Apple hardware, often resulting in higher performance on iPhones with lower specs than their Android counterparts.

Raw numbers don't tell the whole tale.
 
A spec comparison is silly here, considering iOS is optimized to run on Apple hardware, often resulting in higher performance on iPhones with lower specs than their Android counterparts.

Raw numbers don't tell the whole tale.

When I say specs I don't just mean processor numbers. I also mean cameras and screen resolution. Apple completes in cameras but isn't at the top, and it's pretty far behind in screen resolution. When it comes to processor speeds that only matters in actual performance and the iPhone performs just as well if not better than it's competition.
 
I guess the other OEMs have started to up their game.

Also, since people replace their phones every 2-3 years I'm guessing functionality has started to take precedence over form.

All about the mid-range phones these days
 

royalan

Member
I still think it was a mistake for Apple to kill off the C line of iPhones. Sure, it didn't sell as well as the main line, but that was never the point.

There are so many attractive >=$400 phones or there now. C was to compete there.
 
I still think it was a mistake for Apple to kill off the C line of iPhones. Sure, it didn't sell as well as the main line, but that was never the point.

There are so many attractive >=$400 phones or there now. C was to compete there.

SE? Also you can't really call the C a "line" sense it only had one phone.
 
I've always been an Android guy but I have noticed that whenever I go to the store to buy a new phone, the equivalent iPhone costs hundreds more and has worse specs. Maybe people have begun to realise that.

Nonsense.

High premium android phones cost the same as iPhones. Also not sure I should take take specs comment seriously.
 
Nonsense.

High premium android phones cost the same as iPhones. Also not sure I should take take specs comment seriously.

Depends, the Moto X Pure and Nexus 6P came in at lower. If anything the cheaper androids phones might be hurting the holy Trinity of Android more than Apple (Samsung, LG, and HTC)
 

Majine

Banned
I still think it was a mistake for Apple to kill off the C line of iPhones. Sure, it didn't sell as well as the main line, but that was never the point.

I think the bigger picture is that the 5C kinda took away the premium brand Apple had built up over the years.
 

faridmon

Member
Selling 200 Million phones a year is still incredible. Man, if nothing else, Apple sure knows how to market that thing and sell it, even though the price is bloody ridiculous.
 

strata8

Member
Even if we bring up Apples optimization and say "similar" specs the comparison is awful. Why should I buy and iPhone 6s Plus when the Nexus 6p is just as good, and in many ways better, as well as $250 less.

Personally? Performance, battery life, app quality and reparability were all reasons why I chose a 6S over the Nexus 6P. Chuck software support in there as well if you're talking about an S7 or G5.
 

royalan

Member
SE? Also you can't really call the C a "line" sense it only had one phone.

SE...eh. It's nice, but people are becoming accustomed to nice phones with big screens that are still cheap.

I think the bigger picture is that the 5C kinda took away the premium brand Apple had built up over the years.

I don't think so, only because the 5C was only one phone out of many. One outlier phone is not going to kill the brand.

But "premium" in smart phones doesn't mean much these days, as apple is now learning. A phone perceived quality needs to sync with its price. The 5C was a great phone for its price point. A true modern 5C would kill, in my opinion.
 
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