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from the it-worked-until-it-didn't...-now-what? dept.
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!
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 22 2019, @08:35PM (9 children)
Apple has moved to larger phones, and gotten rid of the headphone jack. Their recent iPhones ditched the TouchID fingerprint reader as well, in favor of face-scanning.
This past Saturday, a limited stock of new iPhone SEs were put up on the clearance section of their online store for the US. These are the smaller factor phones with those outdated headphone jacks and archaic TouchID that Apple apparently thinks no one wants anymore. The iPhoneSEs sold out within hours.
They went four years between updates of the Mac Mini. They added a Touch Bar to their Macbooks to replace function keys. It's been over five years since they updated the Mac Pro. Half their products are using USB-C connectors, half are still on Lighting cables.
If they have a strategy, it is unreflected in their product lineup. It looks like they're thrashing around without a clue as to what to do next.
But Microsoft's still stupider, and Google's still eviler, so they got that going for them, which is nice.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by DannyB on Tuesday January 22 2019, @08:41PM
About the headphone jack . . .
I look a few years back. The Samsung Galaxy S5 seemed like the peak of phones. Consider:
* headphone jack
* replaceable battery
* WATER PROOF -- that was amazing!
Since then, it has been down hill. Even for Samsung who made the S5. The next generations had glass backs. Non replaceable batteries. Were not water proof. Its like the disappearing headphone jack.
Why could they once make good phones, and now phones evolve in a direction that is actually consumer unfriendly?
Oh, and the preloaded non-removable apps.
What I now use: Google Pixel 3 XL. Was using: Google Nexus 6P. Both are nice. But expensive. Do these phones really have to be that expensive?
If we sing a slaying song tonight, what tools will be used for the slaying?
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday January 22 2019, @08:55PM (7 children)
The whole industry has moved towards larger phones and getting rid of the headphone jack (even OnePlus [gizmodo.com] killed the jack). But I'm sure there will always be a handful of Android phones with smaller screen sizes and/or headphone jacks.
Fingerprint scanners and face ID are both bad since cops/feds could physically force you to unlock, and just lie about what happened if called out on it in court. Don't use biometric features if they are included.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 22 2019, @08:59PM (3 children)
Alternatively: don't break the law.
(Score: 5, Touché) by takyon on Tuesday January 22 2019, @09:05PM
The law is whatever the man with the gun and badge says it is. Keep licking boots.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 23 2019, @08:10AM
Tell that to the government.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday January 23 2019, @03:00PM
That is good advice. Too bad the cops don't follow it.
Sorry officer, my mistake. When I saw all the police cars parked here I thought I had found the donut shop I was looking for.
If we sing a slaying song tonight, what tools will be used for the slaying?
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 22 2019, @09:33PM (2 children)
Yes, the whole industry is certainly moving towards no headphone jack. When I can't get any phone with a jack, I'll get a feature phone and use my iPod classic and iPod nano (both still working) until they die. Then I'll get some standalone mp3 player with a jack.
I move from one audio source to another all day long. My phone, to the computer, to the console, sometimes even the radio -- and back. There's no way in hell I'm going to resync Bluetooth headphones that many times a day, nor will I get separate headphones for each source.
I assume one reason they're ditching the headphone jack is because they want users to stream everything to that device, and jacks make it too easy to switch audio sources. All must come through the single device, the better to charge you for it, and track what you do...
(Score: 2) by Mykl on Tuesday January 22 2019, @11:02PM (1 child)
I don't think it's that sinister:
I prefer the headphone jack too, but I can see the writing on the wall.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 22 2019, @11:33PM
You're both right.
Not intentionally sinister, good reasons for Apple to have gotten rid of it, more challenging to waterproof.
But also beneficially ties people deeper to more expensive technology, Apple didn't HAVE to have it so think you can't get a jack in, and waterproofing IS possible and would have been a good feature for a company REALLY trying to look out for its users instead of giving users more candy.
And my anecdote isn't data, but I'm with GP. My iPhone 6P (which I got on contract after 7 or 8 was out...) will be the last iDevice I own unless they bring back the jack and there is any smartphone that offers one. Lost too many Newton Dongles to care about Apple's adapter and all the software I really care about is device agnostic.