“Who says Apple needs new gadgets to surprise?” Garett Sloane reports for The New York Post. “The tech titan said yesterday it sold more than 30 million iPhones last quarter, a number that blew away estimates and showed that the company’s flagship device is still on top.”
“Wall Street expected a slight decline for the premium phone, and some forecasts said Apple would sell around 25 million units. Instead the company sold 31.2 million,” Sloane reports. “Sales were boosted by the low-cost older-generation models, a segment of the smartphone market that Apple needs to command if it is to grow its market share. Indeed, reflecting Apple’s success in selling its lower-cost iPhone, the average selling price of the line of smartphones last quarter fell 4 percent to $580 — the first time that number was below $600 since 2009.”
Sloane reports, “Industry watchers expect Apple to take the battle over lower-cost smartphones a step further and produce a dedicated budget line of iPhones to compete with the likes of the Nokia Lumia 521, a Windows phone that just went on sale for an unsubsidized $120.”
MacDailyNews Take: Apple won’t compete at those levels. Such devices would produce a crap experience for users and Apple, unlike beleaguered Nokia and Microsoft, simply won’t inflict such garbage upon customers. An iPhone at triple the price would destroy what’s left of Nokia. And Microsoft’s moribund Windows Phone. And beleaguered, dead company walking Blackberry.
Sloane reports, “On top of beating projections for phone sales, Apple topped earnings and revenue expectations, and gross margins were at the high end of forecasts. Apple generated $35.3 billion in revenue, earning $7.47 a share — both beating estimates. Margins were 36.9 percent.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Citymark” for the heads up.]
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