“No, the sky is not falling — Apple will be fine,” Neil Hughes writes for AppelInsider. “But as the company’s cash cow comes off of its first-ever declining sales, the multi-billion-dollar question for the iPhone is: What can (or should) Apple do to return the iconic product to growth?”
Apple’s “handset saw its first-ever year-over-year decline in sales in the March quarter of this year. Sales were still a massive 51.2 million units, but that was a significant decline from the 61 million iPhones Apple sold in the same period in 2015,” Hughes writes. “The reasons for the drop are numerous: a maturing smartphone market, slowing consumer upgrade patterns, and a tough comparison from the iPhone 6 product cycle.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: How about starting with not shooting yourselves in the foot every other year and kill the misguided, ill-conceived “S” naming scheme?
Why have an annual iPhone upgrade program if you’re not going to wow us with truly new iPhones annually?
Another nobrain who whish perpetual growth was possible.
This guy is late to the party with his article.
I am now sure reincarnation is real. People can’t be on earth being that dumb!
I won’t be ugrading my iPhone 6 Plus to the iPhone 7 if it’s not a “knock ur socks off” product.
This is the first time I’ve kept an iPhone longer than 1 year. I skipped the 6S and if the 7 is not a big leap, I won’t bother.
Apple:
-We want phones that don’t require ugly cases that ruin the design and experience of the device.
-We want screens that don’t wash out in the sunlight.
-We want better battery life.
-We don’t want bezels.
-We want a device that isn’t as fragile as a droppy eyed armless child. From how easy the glass breaks, to the easily dented and scratched shell… make a ROBUST phone that’s also truly waterproof.
-Design something sexy. The current design is boring and long in the tooth.
Apple, your obssession with thinness is laudable, but it works at great expense to the device. I have to use a case and as thin as it is, it adds another 12-15% thickness to the device.
The “S” naming convention has nothing to do with sales. The pattern of same-body upgrades every other year is what let Apple take advantage of economies of scale and mass production, and also allowed a healthy accessories market, since third-party venders knew they’d have at least 2 years with each form factor cycle. Will MDN be happy now that Apple is releasing a new iPhone with a form factor nearly identical to the iPhone 6/6S and calling it the iPhone 7? Because that’s what’s coming out this fall. And there’s a good chance that the iPhone 7 will work with almost all current iPhone 6 and 6s accessories. Personally, I don’t think it would make much difference if they called it the iPhone 6SE.
As with the iPhone 6S, it does indeed sound like there will be little change in the overall shape of the iPhone 7 – antenna bands moved to the ends, perhaps a redesigned camera, added speaker, and elimination of the mechanical home button and headphone jack. Possibly a newer processor, perhaps a bump of base RAM to 32 GB. Darker space gray model. Given the hardware restrictions expected for iOS 10, there may be some legacy iPhone 4 and 4s owners that may finally get new phones. But knowing that there’s a complete redesign expected in 2017, is this enough to get iPhone 6 and 6s owners to upgrade this year?
Or should we all wait for the 8?
And I expect MDN to explode into fairy dust if Apple comes out with the iPhone 8S two years from September.
“Analyst finds itself at a crossroad”
Do we write about Apple failing again for the 99th time and be completely wrong.
or
Do we write about Android making an iPhone killer for the 99th time and be completely wrong.
Consult Nancy Pelosi.