
Apple iPhone sales fears rock Wall Street - osrec
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-46186131
======
GeekyBear
There is a long history of these sorts of rumors making the rounds shortly
after the yearly iPhone announcement, only to later turn out to be complete
nonsense.

The most recent example was in January 2018:

>Apple has reportedly slashed production orders for its iPhone X… sending
shares in the world’s biggest company down on Monday.

The US giant has told Asian suppliers to halve manufacturing targets for the
first three months of the year, from 40m units to 20m, according to the
Japanese newspaper Nikkei. The news sent Apple shares falling by as much as
2.3pc in early trading

[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2018/01/29/apple-
slow...](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2018/01/29/apple-slows-iphone-
x-production-causing-shares-fall/)

The reality turned out to be quite different.

>According to the latest estimates from IHS Markit, the iPhone X was the
world’s most sold smartphone in the first 3 months of 2018, with 12.7 million
units, while the iPhone 8 ranked second with 8.5 million units.

[https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeanbaptiste/2018/06/13/the-
iph...](https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeanbaptiste/2018/06/13/the-iphone-x-was-
the-worlds-best-selling-smartphone-in-q1-2018/)

~~~
codyb
That is 21 million units though. Unless there were other models in production
that brought it up to 40 million seems like it could still be the best selling
models and about 20 million units total, no?

Ope, clicked your link before posting thankfully. Looks like with the 7 and 6
and 8 plus it gets up to 40 million units on the nose pretty much.

Impressive.

------
nihonde
The endless cycle of analysts manipulating AAPL with spurious reporting about
supply chain shifts continues apace.

~~~
partiallypro
How is this spurious? The maker of the components used to make FaceID cut
their outlook. Since Apple is their largest (if only) customer that's a good
indication that sales are slowing. Apple also recently said it will no longer
make public the exact unit sales numbers.

~~~
millstone
It may be real or not. But "Apple is doomed according to indirect supplier
reports" appears every few months. Chicken little's cred is worn very thin.

Example from last January:
[https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/apple-
stock-...](https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/apple-stock-price-
dips-after-reportedly-telling-suppliers-to-cut-iphone-x-production-
targets-2018-1-1014454463)

~~~
partiallypro
Well, Apple did miss iPhone sales this past quarter and the quarter before
(and maybe the quarter in between)...so it's not exactly chicken little. They
have beaten their EPS target, and we have been in a strong bull market so the
stock has shrugged it off.

------
Zelphyr
A lot of people keep complaining about Apple raising their prices without
considering that a) Apple knows people will pay it and b) they're making
really solid machines that last longer. The MacBook Pro that I'm typing this
on is closer to a decade old than is it new and is showing no signs of
stopping. A friend of mine has had three name-brand PC laptops in that time.

I acknowledge the current prices are a hard pill to swallow, but the tool I
use to generate my income isn't something I want to skimp on.

~~~
protomyth
_b) they 're making really solid machines that last longer._

The concern is their products are no longer lasting longer, they deny there
are problems for long periods of time, and make it very hard to fix
independently. The higher prices are worth it for quality, but they are
cutting corners in places they shouldn’t for quality products.

~~~
millstone
Apple has problems but "cutting corners" is not one of them.

The butterfly keyboard is bad, and the problem is apparently that it is too
delicate. There's no evidence this bad keyboard was created as a cost-saving
measure. The mechanism is complex, and clearly expensive. If anything it was a
mistake born of fetishizing thinness.

~~~
dawnerd
And they’re fixing it for free even out of warranty. Good luck getting a pc
laptop manufacturer to repair a 2016 model for four years for free.

~~~
simion314
After a class action lawsuit happened, before they denied the issue.

~~~
xhruso00
Sad practice of Apple PR. Deny issues the longest time possible.

~~~
simion314
More sad is the customer attitude that fall for it and now praise Apple for
replace the keyboard or the phone batteries but don't mention that it just
needed some class action lawsuit.

------
taytus
I saw a video on youtube saying that the bump in prices is because sales are
slowing down year over year.

I have a bunch of Apple devices but haven't updated them in a couple of years.
Prices are just prohibited for me.

~~~
jama211
They're also probably reaching market saturation of who will likely buy their
devices - there's a limit at some point. It's analogous to Facebook, which
isn't growing it's user base much anymore because they have already have just
about everyone on the social internet outside of China with an account. At
some point, there just isn't more humans in your market sector.

Wall street cares about growth, and Apple knows they're growth in device
numbers is going to slow - so the way you make more money is to make your
devices more expensive. They did this, and that's why their revenue and profit
is still rising even though the sales numbers are not.

They don't want to report the sales numbers of iPhones anymore because they
know they won't go up, so they'll just show revenue and profit instead because
they're confident there's still growth there. Other manufacturers such as
Samsung and Google already don't release sales numbers, it was actually
outside of the norm that Apple used to share these.

------
askaboutit
Been on an Apple binge recently. The prices are out of reach. I’ve watched
Steve on stage reducing prices! Whilst increasing speed. Steve talked about
speed, ram, students constantly.

~~~
puranjay
Same here. The prices in my local market are absurdly high. They're literally
more expensive than a 2017 Macbook Pro, and more expensive than every Macbook
Air on the market.

My OnePlus 5T was less than 1/4th the price.

The latest iterations turned me off the brand. Apple is still my go to for
laptops, but the phone prices are a ripoff

~~~
askaboutit
It was kind of inspiring to see Steve talk about the power PC CPU’s in a
technical way. He would say “these things scream” and would compare
constantly. He would talk about students and creatives. Professionals and home
users in detail. Watching him bring down the prices was cool to see. The event
in NY was a slap in the face. The new air might be great. But they increased
the price by $100 without making it anything innovative.

~~~
saagarjha
What do you define to be "innovative"? They added a new screen, Touch ID, new
trackpad, faster processor…for a $100 more. Compared to the computer it was
replacing, this is a steal.

------
tinkerteller
AAPL will survive, not because they are doing great but the fact that Android
just can't pick up the slack. I was completely mind boggled when top Android
phones decided to get rid of headphone jack in order to copy iPhone's mistake.
When Apple introduced notch, most Android phones followed up to also have that
ugly thing. Funny thing is that none had FaceID to justify it! As long as
Android is determined to chase tail lights, Apple is safe and will keep
leading the segment. Wall street will come around back in few days.

~~~
jama211
There were android phones without a headphone jack prior to Apple removing
theirs, such as the Motorola Z.

------
xhruso00
I still have hopes for SE 2. Wish there was XR mini.

------
tehlike
apple is becoming a services company, selling high margin services. This seems
to be what the market is missing.

~~~
Someone1234
It is possible they missed that, it is also possible that that assumption is
already built into APPL's $194.17 share price.

A lot of Apple stock holders are speculators who have bet big on Apple
continuing to grow and expand their device and service business to even larger
heights, stopping or slowing won't recoup the current bets.

~~~
millstone
AAPL's P/E of 16.36 does not reflect speculation on a growth company. Compare
to Google at 40, MSFT at 44, f'ing Oracle at 52...

------
crb002
So Apple prices themselves out of the market and now they are _shocked_ the
market reacted with lower sales.

~~~
SlowRobotAhead
Aren’t the new iPhones approximately the same price as the premium android
phones?

Edit: Note to self, don’t ask questions here. I had thought the top of the
line Samsungs were close. Good points below about cost per supported year.

~~~
Jtsummers
Unlocked Pixel 3: $799-899 (64GB-128GB)

Unlocked Pixel 3XL: $899-999 (64GB-128GB)

Unlocked iPhone Xs: $999-1349 (64GB-512GB)

Unlocked iPhone Xs Max: $1099-1449 (64GB-512GB)

I don't know if Google's Pixel phones are really premium, but by the price I'm
assuming so. It seems Apple is adding about $200 over Google's price for the
similar size and storage points.

~~~
alttab
Depth sensor? Other meaningful specs? Plthe difference between $800 and $1000
is abstract when you're financing or renting month to month

~~~
Jtsummers
No doubt there are more spec differences between the two. I don't know Android
hardware well enough to find a proper Android-to-Apples comparison, so I went
with a current flagship from Google and the two specs that (I suspect) most
users care about: size and storage.

