Ok, not arguing just trying to understand better. Surely people are still upgrading. Perhaps it's less frequent? Like, now people are waiting their full upgrade period (or longer) whereas before many upgraded frequently?
We've also seen the shift away from 2-year contracts here in the USA. People are now aware that phones actually cost $600+ and are either paying full price, or monthly installments to pay off the $600 phone they bought.
Yeah, that's an interesting observation. I've long thought that Apple benefited from the 2-year contract model more than any other manufacturer. The 2-year contract hides the actual cost of the phone, so an iPhone sells for $199 just like an LG. Who buys a Honda when a Mercedes costs the same?
Buying a phone for its real price puts the cost/benefit front and center to the consumer. Maybe an iPhone isn't worth an extra $200 after all? This puts Apple in a bind as they either have to drop the phones price or provide greater value for their price point.
> "Under Cook, Apple has iterated on faster/thinner/bigger/smaller/blingier, and there's been no significant original thinking."
This is lazy thinking, based on Jobs being an 'innovator' and Cook being focused on refinement. What exactly makes the iPad more innovative than, let's say, the Apple Watch?
It's shrinking (slightly) year-over-year because the iPhone 6 was a blockbuster--people were waiting for larger-screen iPhones and jumped to upgrade when the 6 came out. The 6 was also supply-constrained which pushed some of those sales into the year-ago quarter.
The 6s has done fine, but is not the anomaly that the 6 was. Wall Street will react violently to all this, but I think Apple and the iPhone business are still fundamentally healthy and sound.
Do we know the impact of the new iPhone pricing models where people pay Apple a monthly installment? Is it just a wash? At first glance, it seemed like this was increasing Apple's take.
It doesn't change the amount of money Apple gets. The carriers still were buying the phones from them at wholesale or full price, and just subsidizing the upfront cost of the phone by selling it at $199 to the customer but baking in the rest of the phone into their monthly voice/text/data plans.
I don't think OP is referring to getting the phone from your carrier, they're referring to the 'iPhone Upgrade Program' where you pay Apple a monthly installment and get a new phone every year: http://www.apple.com/shop/iphone/iphone-upgrade-program
From my perspective as an Apple fan and consumer, when I look at the current iPhone 6S offering and the current Macbook product lines, I feel as though Apple's value proposition is eroding.
It wasn't long ago when I would have considered it silly to purchase last-gen Apple products. Today it doesn't seem silly at all. Although, I am a little sore about the current state of the Macbook product line and I hope that Apple really knocks it out of the park this summer or fall with an updated suite of products, particularly in the realm of a lightweight 13" retina offering.
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[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 66.0 ms ] threadThe annoying thing is all the pundits predicting Apple doom for the last 9* years will all be saying "I told you so!".
* Make that 19# years
# Actually, make that 32 years
http://www.pcworld.com/article/3027008/smartphone-growth-at-...
http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2015/10/29/smartphones-sa...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/mobile-phones/11812322...
While the iPad seems to have stalled on its own significantly, this doesn't seem to be an iPhone-specific trend (yet)
If you have a 5, there's no compelling need to buy a 6x because from a user pov it's just more of the same.
Under Cook, Apple has iterated on faster/thinner/bigger/smaller/blingier, and there's been no significant original thinking.
The execution is great, in a slightly wobbly way, but what's being executed has become formulaic, mundane, and unexciting.
Buying a phone for its real price puts the cost/benefit front and center to the consumer. Maybe an iPhone isn't worth an extra $200 after all? This puts Apple in a bind as they either have to drop the phones price or provide greater value for their price point.
This is lazy thinking, based on Jobs being an 'innovator' and Cook being focused on refinement. What exactly makes the iPad more innovative than, let's say, the Apple Watch?
It wasn't long ago when I would have considered it silly to purchase last-gen Apple products. Today it doesn't seem silly at all. Although, I am a little sore about the current state of the Macbook product line and I hope that Apple really knocks it out of the park this summer or fall with an updated suite of products, particularly in the realm of a lightweight 13" retina offering.