“Without question, the catalyst behind Apple’s record-breaking earnings was the iPhone,” Yoni Heisler writes for Network World. “For the quarter gone by, Apple sold 74.5 million iPhones, an all-time quarterly record.”
“What’s interesting about Apple’s iPhone sales for the quarter, aside from the incredible volume, is that the average selling price (ASP) of the iPhone was way up from the same quarter a year-ago,” Heisler writes. “During the 2014 holiday quarter, the ASP of the iPhone was $687. During the 2013 holiday quarter, the ASP of the iPhone was $637.”
“It’s overwhelmingly clear that Apple’s more expensive iPhone models – the 6 and the 6 Plus – were key factors in Apple’s record breaking quarter. And yet, armchair quarterbacks with no semblance of business sense or awareness of how Apple operates have argued for years on end that Apple absolutely needs to come out with a low cost iPhone. For these shortsighted pundits and analysts, the blind pursuit of meaningless marketshare is bizarrely more important than actual profits.,” Heisler writes. “Apple’s business model is simple. The company sells premium products at premium prices.”
Read more in the full article here.
Related article:
Newsflash: Apple sells premium products at premium prices to premium customers – October 23, 2012
For people who actually use their phones $600 for two years is really a great investment.
Right on.
Actually, my first iPhone was paid in part by skipping my daily stops to Starbucks.
On the second upgrade, I introduced the barter/hand-me-down (BHMD) system to my son. He gave me cash for my birthday and I in return allotted the monies I would spend on him towards a new iPhone for myself.
This worked quite well until he started working. Now that I am semi-retired, he wants to reverse MY BHMD system. Obviously, I have had to start skipping my coffees again. Ungrateful little bugger.
For middle and upper class people with jobs that pay more than minimum wage, that is.
I think most poor people need Internet access too, and while an iPhone with a data plan might not be best option for everyone, it’s not too crazy expensive either compared to other Internet access options, and Apple packs a lot of value per dollar.
Consumers will tend to pay a premium price because, like one’s wristwatch or an automobile, one’s cell phone becomes an extremely PERSONAL possession.
People like cheap. It isn’t until later that they realize that there’s a price attached to cheap: Old, rarely upgradable OS, crappy quality, poor performance, poor security, etc.
Live and learn.
The market has spoken and people in general just don’t want shitty android products or anything with a windows moniker. Anyone capable of producing an original product other than the aforementioned stands a reasonably good chance of succeeding.