Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Tuesday January 22 2019, @07:34PM   Printer-friendly
from the it-worked-until-it-didn't...-now-what? dept.

The End Of Apple (archive)

Apple has had an incredible decade. Since the iPhone debuted in 2007, the company's sales have jumped tenfold. The stock has soared over 700%. And up until last November, it was the world's largest publicly traded company. But two weeks ago, Apple issued a rare warning that shocked investors. For the first time since 2002, the company slashed its earnings forecast. The stock plunged 10% for its worst day in six years. This capped off a horrible few months in which Apple stock crashed about 35% from its November peak. That erased $446 billion in shareholder value—the biggest wipeout of wealth in a single stock ever.

[...] Despite the revenue growth, Apple is selling fewer iPhones every year. In fact, iPhone unit sales peaked way back in 2015. Last year, Apple sold 14 million fewer phones than it did three years ago.

[...] In 2010, you could buy a brand-new iPhone 4 for 199 bucks. In 2014, the newly released iPhone 6 cost 299 bucks. Today the cheapest model of the latest iPhone X costs $1,149! It's a 500% hike from what Apple charged eight years ago. [...] In 1984, Motorola sold the first cell phone for $4,000. The average price for a smartphone today is $320, according to research firm IDC. Cell phone prices have come down roughly 92%. And yet, Apple has hiked its smartphone prices by 500%!

[...] Twelve years ago, only 120 million people owned a cell phone. Today over five billion people own a smartphone, according to IDC. [...] now iPhone price hikes have gone about as far as they can go. [...] A publicly traded company that makes most of its money from selling phones is no longer telling investors how many phones it sells!


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by bob_super on Tuesday January 22 2019, @08:12PM (5 children)

    by bob_super (1357) on Tuesday January 22 2019, @08:12PM (#790264)

    > And you will still have to throw it away after a couple of years.

    I positively hate Apple, but you can expect their phones to get updates for 4 or 5 years.
    Thought the people who spend over a grand on a phone rarely want to ever be seen with a phone from three years ago.

    All the gimmicks of making phones bigger and adding more cores and a ridiculous amount of cameras are coming to an end in the next three years. I'm not sure what the marketing guys are gonna invent next, but the overall market will look a lot different soon.
    Saturation, commoditization... expected until the next "killer" app/device.

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +2  
       Insightful=1, Interesting=1, Total=2
    Extra 'Insightful' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   4  
  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by DannyB on Tuesday January 22 2019, @08:36PM (2 children)

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday January 22 2019, @08:36PM (#790275) Journal

    Like typical desktop computers, phones eventually have enough cpu, memory and storage. Once that point is achieved, adding more does not really benefit most users, but continues to increase the price.

    Most PC users now could do with a PC that easily costs under a few hundred dollars. A similar thing will be true with phones.

    Once most phones have plenty of capacity and capability, the thing users start looking for is for the SAME phone to get cheaper, not to have newer phones with more capacity than they need. Although cameras seem to continue to be improved. But again, I speculate that there comes a point where it is simply enough.

    --
    People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
    • (Score: 3, Informative) by bzipitidoo on Tuesday January 22 2019, @09:29PM (1 child)

      by bzipitidoo (4388) on Tuesday January 22 2019, @09:29PM (#790299) Journal

      > Most PC users now could do with a PC that easily costs under a few hundred dollars.

      This is a big reason why I've gone for low power PCs-- the stick computers, that Intel NUC, and of course the laptops and tablets. Cuts down on the noise, and still has enough power to run a desktop reasonably snappily. And can still play most high end games, albeit at lower framerates and resolutions. Though one problem I've had is that the embedded Intel HD graphics are prone to overheating. The computer can grind away at a CPU intensive math problem, but not actually use the 3D accelerated graphics, not without some adjustments.

      • (Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday January 23 2019, @05:17PM

        by Freeman (732) on Wednesday January 23 2019, @05:17PM (#790686) Journal

        You still get more bang for you buck building your own AMD machine. I've only built AMD over the past decade and am quite happy with my choices. None of the computers I've built have died over that time period. I had some stability issues with my current setup, but I got 1st gen Zen and motherboard. Not sure whether the AMD updates or Motherboard updates eventually fixed the issues, but during that time I know I also had some issues with Windows 10. I think I just paid the first adopter tax on the hardware and the software.

        --
        Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
  • (Score: 2) by Mykl on Tuesday January 22 2019, @10:51PM (1 child)

    by Mykl (1112) on Tuesday January 22 2019, @10:51PM (#790342)

    Agreed - though I think we have already reached the point where the specs are "good enough".

    I'm running with an iPhone 6s that's now about 3.5 years old, and have no intention to change any time soon. The replaced battery is not fantastic, but I have a charger at my desk so it doesn't create huge problems. Not only are the specs good enough for me, I actually prefer the slightly smaller form factor (it is still just a little too big in my opinion - the iPhone 4 was a great size as I recall because you could reach the whole screen with your thumb when holding with one hand).

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 23 2019, @03:51AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 23 2019, @03:51AM (#790449)

      Not only are the specs good enough for me, I actually prefer the slightly smaller form factor (it is still just a little too big in my opinion - the iPhone 4 was a great size as I recall because you could reach the whole screen with your thumb when holding with one hand).

      You need the new iThumb extension!!

      or,

      You're holding it wrong.