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Apple Sells Nine Million iPhones Over Weekend
Nerval's Lobster writes "Apple managed to sell nine million iPhones over the weekend, with the company claiming its initial supply of high-end iPhone 5S units completely sold out. Apple didn't sell out of the new iPhone 5C, its plastic-cased (and cheaper) alternative to the iPhone 5S; models are still available for shipment within 24 hours from Apple's online store. And the iPhone 5S selling out is no surprise: in the weeks ahead of the new iPhones' launch, rumors persisted that the initial production run of the device was relatively small in scope, which would make it far easier for Apple to sell out of its first batch. But how many iPhone 5C units did Apple actually manage to sell? In August, KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo suggested that Apple would produce just over 5 million iPhone 5S units ahead of the device's launch weekend; if that number's accurate, and Apple sold every single one, it would mean Apple sold roughly 4 million iPhone 5C units in order to reach that 9-million-sold figure for both models. That's an impressive figure for any smartphone, of course, and it could quiet some of the naysayers who have spent the past several months suggesting that Apple's best years are behind it."
... that's a LOT of conflict minerals!
C has already been for cookie.
The launch numbers for this phone are totally dwarfed by the news of GTA V's numbers.
Yeah, yeah, different industry, but still, side by side Apple's numbers look weak.
So if selling 9 million high-end smartphones, according to the pundits, is "jumping the shark", I wonder what success looks like?
Apple's been dying for over 30 years.
Besides the 9M people mentioned above? ...
Nobody on Slashdot cares. If it isn't big news about how some Android phone is now number one market share or has features Apple doesn't fingers need to be inserted into ears.
Seriously, I don't know if 9 mill is good, bad or indifferent. What were the number of Galaxy 4 when that was released? I'm curious about the comparison to similar products on the market and their launch.
it could quiet some of the naysayers who have spent the past several months suggesting that Apple's best years are behind it.
If you know anything about Apple, it should be that nothing will really stop the fans and nothing will quiet the naysayers.
Apple has been killed by IBM PC, Compaq, DELL, Palm, Nokia, RIM... Now, it will be killed by Samsung once again.
There is a spark in every single flame bait point.
oh yes, they are going to feel it any time now. The day one adoption of iOS was only 35%. http://techcrunch.com/2013/09/19/ios-7-adoption-already-as-high-as-35-in-one-day-apple-and-developers-reap-the-rewards/
...rumors persisted that the initial production run of the device was relatively small in scope, which would make it far easier for Apple to sell out of its first batch.
I love the implication that Apple artificially limited supply in order to get the sold out headline when they sold 9 MILLION phones, almost double the record number of iPhone 5 units that were sold last year, well in excess of any other mobile sales figures. The initial production run was "relatively small" only in so much as it couldn't live up to demand - they sold 9 MILLION units in THREE DAYS. That isn't "relatively small" by any logical measure.
Blows my mind how crushing sales like that can still be spun into somehow Apple failing.
I'll let you laugh at mine! Fuck all you haters. My glorious gold iphone is the shit :)
Actually, it's pretty hard to tell it's the gold one because it spends its time in this sweet leather wallet case that looks like a pocket reference. http://twelvesouth.com/products/bookbook_iphone5/
>> Besides the 9M people mentioned above?
That's the weird thing to me. Within my social circle of a couple of hundred folks, no one is tweeting, facebooking, or otherwise announcing that they've run out and bought the new phone. In fact, I've seen a few folks writing about this being the first upgrade cycle they might sit out, e.g., "hoping the '6' gives us something to look forward to"
I have to wonder if Apple is "channel stuffing" a bit here. For example:
http://gigaom.com/2013/05/09/what-apple-really-means-when-it-says-it-has-sold-a-product/
http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-verizon-iphone-2013-7
9999/10000 is a fraction.
Actually there isn't that much difference between the two. It comes down to if you have Android Apps, then you stay on Android, or if you have iOS apps then you stay on iOS.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
To be fair, their record is pretty good on that issue. The iphone 4's were updated, & so were the 4S to ios7. That's more than 2 models back, or more than 3 years back.
Not me. I'd love to know who is still buying Apple devices when Android gizmos do pretty much the same thing for a fraction of the cost.
What you're experiencing is called cognitive dissonance. The idea that other people could prefer something that you yourself do not approve of can be difficult for those who cling to their beliefs as if they were some kind of religion. But companies aren't gods, and the choice of smart phone isn't a faith. They are products, and different people will make different choices based on what they value. Some will choose simply for the size or apparent superiority of the feature list, and others will choose based on finesse or ease any of a number of other factors. Those are their choices, and the fact that you made a different choice does not in any way mean that your choice should apply to everyone else.
Perhaps a bit of introspection on your part as to why you hold your beliefs so dear would be helpful.
People who say "sheeple" have about as much sophistication as an AOL user, and in fact are probably actually AOL users.
Are you kidding or what?! Android fragmentation (was) an issue with newly released devices and units that are less than a year old. Anybody that is able to keep a smartphone for four years today is a rare case.
With the iPhone you get iOS 7 support for a 3-year old phone model (which granted could be purchased a month ago); the youngest phone sold new that is not supported by iOS 7 is the 3GS, which hasn't been available for a year, and when it was available it was free with contract.
I got a kick out of the summary as well... why throw in analyst garbage like that. According to several analysis, the US sales of the 5S outnumber the 5C by 3.7:1, and in Japan it is closer to 5:1. Globally, it is likely that there were about 7MM 5S and 2MM 5C units sold... which is a hell of a lot more than the 5 sold on launch, and also a lot more than any other manufacturer has ever sold on launch.
What is new and revolutionary that came out of the tech industry in the past 50 years?
A bunch of incremental changes. Leading to the next step better. And every once and awhile a step back because they can do something useful and cheaper, and get a broad consumer market out of it.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
That fraction being 105/100 ?
The sony xperia costs more than the iphone 5s from O2 in the UK...
I know plenty of people that upgraded, just none of them bragged about in Facebook or Twitter, because they know no one really gives a shit what phone they are carrying.
SJWs are the new boogeyman. -Me
When Steve Jobs got up there and announced the first iPhone, he stated that Apple had relatively modest goals. Of the 1 billion cellphones in the world, Apple hoped to get the iPhone to represent just 1% - or ten million units. They completely blew that goal out of the water. Now they can hit that mark in a single product launch weekend.
Microsoft is neck-and-neck with Apple, selling nine Windows phones on the same weekend.
Depends on the product. For a product that is unavailable anywhere to purchase, shipped == sold. I'm hearing stories that the 5S is sold out everywhere you go. The 5C is another story. Apple does have a much clearer picture of sold in their own stores. For other retailers it is less likely that they will have accurate numbers right now.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
See, that's the funny thing about observer bias. If you are yourself unlikely to be in the market for the new iPhone, your social circle is probably skewed towards the same demographic as yourself, and therefore not a good indicator for the actual demand. I, on the other hand, have heard plenty of chatter on social media, as well as in actual in-person conversations about people planning on getting the new phone, whether to get the 5C or 5S, etc.
Android gizmos have average build quality, good specs, lower quality software and poor long term support. Apple iPhones have better build quality, good specs, higher quality software and excellent long term support. Apple takes usually years to 'orphan' an older device. IOS 7 runs on iPhone 4, while that device is only three years old, in the Android world getting a 3 year old device to run the latest version of Android usually does not happen.
If you're the proud owner of a new iPhone 5S or iPhone 5C -- or if you're thinking about buying one -- be sure to handle it with care. Durability tests suggests the new models are more likely to break if you drop them, compared to previous iPhone models.
The new phones were tested by SquareTrade, a provider of protection plans for gadgets. They also tested several other competing smartphones to see which ones best withstand drops, dunks under water, and other common hazards. Its finding: The latest iPhones aren't as durable as last year's iPhone 5.
The biggest loser, however, was Samsung's Galaxy S4, which failed to work after being submerged in water and being dropped 5 feet off the ground, according to San Francisco-based SquareTrade.
The phone that withstood SquareTrade's torture test best was Google Inc.'s Moto X. The Moto X is the first phone designed with the Internet company as Motorola's new owner. Released in August, the Moto X is also the first smartphone assembled in the U.S.
"We were expecting that at least one of the new iPhone models would up its game, but surprisingly, it was the Moto X that proved most forgiving of accidents," said Ty Shay, chief marketing officer at SquareTrade.
Officials from Apple Inc., Samsung Electronics Co. and Google Inc. didn't immediately return email messages for comment.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-205_162-57604082/new-iphone-5s-iphone-5c-may-be-more-likely-to-break/
you can't play GTA on your new iPhone.
Yes you can.
Besides the 9M people mentioned above? ...
"9M units sold" != 9M people buying one.
There were already a shit-ton of these things on Ebay by Saturday afternoon.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
People forget when Microsoft injected cash in Apple when it was going nowhere.
Mightier companies than Apple have fallen, and unfortunately for them it begins to look like they are living from a "perception marketing bubble".
Remember Nokia? It was washing the floor with the competition. Apple did very well to change some of the paradigms of the mobile phone platform, but they have contributed very little and the release of "cheaper" iPhones recognizes that the only differentiator now is in price not in features.
And that is the problem for Apple: to keep charging for a phone that does pretty much the same as any other you have to resort to gimmicks: selling golden phones for example, in technology that can take you only so far.
Proof: people wanted a phone just because it was golden. That is not innovation, is hype, sooner or later the bubble will burst and all the chickens will come home to roost.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
> Android gizmos do pretty much the same thing
Can Android do real-time audio processing yet?
Hell, I'd pay for a ROM that let me turn my old 'Droid devices into useful musical instruments. SPC is about the only Android music-creation app I've found (thus far) that doesn't completely suck.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
That's certainly possible, it isn't an usual practice among device makers. I'm personally content keeping my 5 and waiting for next year's upgrade, but I know a lot of people with the 4S that are pretty excited.
Someone bought an iPhone and out it on eBay. Did Apple get their money or not?
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
>> because they know no one really gives a shit what phone they are carrying. ...and that's a big reason why I think Apple's in trouble long term. If no one cares that you have an Apple phone anymore, even more people are going to drop back to commodity - usually Android - phones.
Apple will have most of the iPhones in the first world on IOS 7 within a month. Something like that just does not happen EVER with Android. There may be older devices out there but they are no longer with primary users and driving the IOS market and apps. Apple devs will just keep moving forward to the latest version as most customers do leaving no effective fragmentation in the market.
The adoption rate of IOS 7 is already past 35% in ONE WEEK. Android will be lucky to have over 35% on the latest version ever.
Not me. I'd love to know who is still buying Apple devices when Android gizmos do pretty much the same thing for a fraction of the cost.
I'd love to know who is still buying steaks when burgers do pretty much the same thing for a fraction of the cost.
Or, someone bought 30 iPhones and hoped to sell them for a premium once Apple ran out.
I'm not denying that Apple made money, merely pointing out that "9 million units sold" does not mean 9 million people got one.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
People who don't care about gizmos, and who buy themselves into the Apple universe? It's funny how Apple has managed to create the "just phone". My uneducated guess is that for many the Apple devices are the tickets for easier living, although the paradise island is inclusive - but still the perceived cost is less than the manufactured (and also many ways real) satisfaction.
The strategy is unique: Apple keeps customers in a slow IV drip of improvements; provokes emotions from all sides and satisfies them in a torturing pace. Apparently that works. It's like a never ending strip tease.
I'm still going to stick with my HP WebOS phone, it might still make a comeback.
Did you actually read one word of the article above???? If you did, did you actually try to understand it????
Mike @ The Geek Pub. Let's Make Stuff!
Definitely true. I was using that as a rough correlation. Apple does limit the amount of phones a single person can purchase however (I think the max is 2 during the first weekend), so I doubt the number is vastly different.
Probably the same kind of people who buy Macs, even though Dell computers do the same thing for a fraction of the cost
Or the people who buy a Mercedes Benz, even though a Hyundai does the same thing for a fraction of the cost.
Of course, while all of these products do generally the same thing, the user experience can be quite different for people who notice this sort of thing.
For example, Apple is very concerned about conveying a touch experience that creates the illusion that the user is interacting directly with elements of the display, so Apple puts a lot of effort into minimizing the lag between touch input and response. For example, the previous generation, the iPhone 5, has half the latency of the fastest Android device. And the iPhone 5s is benchmarking twice as fast as the iPhone 5 for some functions.
For some people, this sort of thing makes a big difference. They may not be able to put their finger on it, but they know that Apple's devices are more enjoyable to use than other devices that do the "same thing," just as a Mercedes is more enjoyable to drive than a Hyundai.
But while you'll spend a great deal more for a Mercedes, you can buy the iPhone 5s at nearly the same price as top-of-the-line competitors. This Apple's big achievement with the iPhone, and Apple continues to reap these huge sales numbers year after year--the ability to deliver a premium quality product at a price that is competitive with the knock-offs.
>Actually there isn't that much difference between the two. It comes down to if you have Android Apps,
>then you stay on Android, or if you have iOS apps then you stay on iOS.
I think you make an interesting point, but I'm not sure how many people it's true for. Phone apps are so inexpensive that I could buy IOS equivalents of all my Android apps for well under $100 if Apple offered a better product for my use case than the large-screen Samsung Note-series phones I use. I'm not entrenched like I am with Windows on the PC.
That's good enough for me
>>>> who is still buying Apple
>> you're experiencing...cognitive dissonance
Nah - I know individuals are buying, but I really I want to know which demographics are buying: existing Apple customers, new customers, age groups (seems like Harleys and iPhones are becoming Baby Boomer staples), income levels, etc.
Well the Japanese, rich Chinese, the people on expensive plans in Europe and something like 80% of American postpay customers. People for whom "pretty much the same thing" isn't good enough and had no intention of buying the Androids that were only "a fraction of the cost".
when ANY sort of criticism of Apple here on Slashdot meant an immediate moderation down to -1.
But companies aren't gods, ....
Apple has this brand loyalty that very few other companies have. As a matter of fact, it was actually a case study in B school.
Apple did what many companies dream of - have people make a product as part of their identity.
Harley Davidson and some fashion designers have also achieved it.
Sure... One to share for the whole factory, maybe.
Declared dead 63 times since April 1995
It's funny because the early quotes don't sound that much different than the recent ones:
1995
Unless somebody pulls a rabbit out of a hat, companies tend to have long glide slopes because of the installed bases. But Apple is just gliding down this slope and they're loosing market share every year. Things start to spiral down once you get under a certain threshold. And when developers no longer write applications for your computer, that's when it really starts to fall apart.
1996
These facts were summed up by Stan Dolberg of Forrester Research who said, "whether they stand alone or are acquired, Apple as we know it, is cooked." [Article found through David Pogue's column "The Desktop Critic: Reality Check 2000" in Macworld Magazine, where the quote still resides.]
One day Apple was a major technology company with assets to make any self-respecting techno-conglomerate salivate. The next day Apple was a chaotic mess without a strategic vision and certainly no future.
1997
I'm a Mac lover, but last year I switched over completely to Windoze because Apple couldn't build a reasonable laptop. I really want it to succeed, but I think the company's finished. Software vendors aren't turning out enough code to keep the Mac as a really good platform, even for family and school stuff. This whole NeXT decision seems to be a waste of time. It should have been sold to HP for $35 per share a year and a half ago.
2000
Steve Jobs can't run companies, but he has proven that he is a genius at motivating teams of people to produce extraordinary products. In fact, he may be the greatest project team leader in the history of high tech. That is no small achievement. But it does not translate to being the CEO of a giant corporation. Jobs failed the first time running Apple, failed at Next and only succeeded at Pixar because the company worked around him. He succeeded in the short term during this, his second, Apple tenure because he ran the whole company as a product team. That only works so long. Why is he a poor CEO? Because he's mercurial, insufficiently engaged by the more boring (but crucial) operations like distribution and, ultimately, because he's a pretty nasty piece of work. In the best of all scenarios, Jobs would hire a competent CEO and focus on product development, but his ego would soon lead him to undermine his replacement. Steve Jobs is Apple's Alcibiades: the company can't live without him, or with him.
Investors may be asking themselves what Apple can do to revive its fortunes. The likely answer, unfortunately, is that Steve Jobs has no white rabbits left in his hat. Apple appears to be facing a dead end in its business growth, the victim of mismanagement and unmitigated hubris. Apple lovers are a loyal bunch, and they'll probably stick with the company. But Jobs's dream of becoming the world's biggest computer-maker will likely remain just that -- a dream.
What you're experiencing is called cognitive dissonance. The idea that other people could prefer something that you yourself do not approve of can be difficult for those who cling to their beliefs as if they were some kind of religion. But companies aren't gods, and the choice of smart phone isn't a faith. They are products, and different people will make different choices based on what they value. Some will choose simply for the size or apparent superiority of the feature list, and others will choose based on finesse or ease any of a number of other factors. Those are their choices, and the fact that you made a different choice does not in any way mean that your choice should apply to everyone else.
Perhaps a bit of introspection on your part as to why you hold your beliefs so dear would be helpful.
The same can be applied to Apple zealots like yourself. When there are superior products available for less money, why buy Apple/
Because it's not a superior product.
Woosh.... and, woosh.... I didn't see him make any statement that would peg him as an Apple fanboy to somebody who is not an Android fundamentalist, nor did he explicitly say that Apple is better than Android. All he did was make a (apparently correct) diagnosis of cognitive dissonance. His only major point is that different people define superior product in different ways and that you two should get over it. Everything you two have said in those posts, and most of what you are likely to say in any future posts on this subject, just confirms his diagnosis of cognitive dissonance.
Only to idiots, are orders laws.
-- Henning von Tresckow
assuming everyone cares about the new GTA
i wouldn't have known about it except for the NYC subway ads. i don't have an xbox or PS3
One of the reasons Apple has been so successful with their consumer electronics devices is they've made them fashionable to own. They didn't make the first MP3 player, and certainly not the first portable music player, but they made it cool. It was fashionable to be seen with an iPod, complete with white earbuds hanging out in front of your shirt (headphone companies had never had a demand for white earbuds before but suddenly they did). Their products were good at what they did too, but the thing that truly drove them to be the thing was they were fashionable. People want to have an iPod, not an MP3 player.
Now that's great... Until it stops working. Fashion is a very fickle market. What is fashionable today is passe tomorrow, often with no warning. Your brand and look isn't fashionable anymore and you have to move products based on other things.
So if Apple falls out of fashion, that'll be a hit to their market in a big way. Particularly since they go for premium pricing. The consumer electronics market is notoriously price sensitive. You see that all over. However fashion is not, and in fact can even be the opposite. Well if Apple's products stop being the cool thing to own and just become a thing to own, their pricing could be problematic.
None of this means Apple is "doomed" they can adapt for sure, but this idea that their business model can and will continue forever is a bit silly.
The problem is not rather the 5C not being sold well because being of "plastic", but rather because it is brain-dead to expect people to pick up yesterdays technology for a meagre 100 dollars. They would do better using the manufacturing resources of the 5C to ramp up 5S production.
Apple is now around or over 3/4s of the USA postpay market. Are you really going to argue that those people are being driven by fashion or are particularly fashion conscious?
who pays $900 for a smartphone?
its $649 in the USA plus 5% to 8.75% sales tax depending on where you live
I'd love to know who is still buying Apple devices when Android gizmos do pretty much the same thing for a fraction of the cost.
I'm no Apple Fanboy (home PCs run Windows & phone is a 4s) but I can see why people stick with what they have. At our house we have 2 iPods, an iPad, and my (company-issued) iPhone. They all seamlessly integrate with our MP3 and MP4 libraries in iTunes, and my under-sixes know how to work them all. Changing ecosystems is a PITA.
They aren't channel stuffing. They have been steadily increasing wait times on their website. Why stuff when you can sell to customers in money in hand?
I'd love to know who is still buying Apple devices when Android gizmos do pretty much the same thing for a fraction of the cost.
Because the "fraction of the cost" argument doesn't apply to most people in the U.S. Its not the cost of the unsubsidized no-contract phone that most people see, its the cost of the subsidized phone with a contract. To most people an iPhone 5S is $200, a 5C is $100 and a 4S is free. Much like they see a Samsung Galaxy S4 for $200 rather than $600, and a Galaxy S III for free rather than $400.
...
Given the subsidy iOS and Android are basically equivalent in cost. What helps Apple is the app ecosystem. Apple gets more attention from developers, 4x the revenue per app download (over $0.08 on average vs under $0.02), less fragmentation to deal with (dev time and test time),
The 5S/5C was released in eleven worldwide markets simultaneously this year vs nine markets for last year's iPhone 5 release, including China. Me thinks the one-weekend sales figures aren't comparable.
i carry a GS3 and an iphone 5 daily
my Galaxy does a few things that I care about like upload stuff to evernote from an app that the iphone doesn't, but the iphone is a much better product overall
better quality apps overall
better games with xbox quality graphics on some
galaxy s3 is laggy
iphone touch screen is better
I wouldn't underestimate the huge inertia of sheepish customers who were actually "trained" to run out and buy the next phone iteration even if they don't need it.
This has nothing to do with intelligence, by the way. It's impulse-shopping, or, rather, compulsive shopping. The driving forces are varied:
- social status competition: Jack has bought the new thing, Jill must too.
- planned obsolescence perception: "the new phone appeared, therefore my current phone is OLD".
- bragging rights: "I bought this FIRST in my 'hood!"
- endorphin-inducing activities: "you DESERVE this phone, you will be HAPPY with this phone".
- hype (pretty much an ingredient for of all the above)
This is generally valid; it's not only for Apple products. However, Apple managed to perfect this method and instruct their customer base better than many others did. Besides, they were first to mass produce touchscreen phones and market them successfully.
Statistics *might* show (I am too lazy to research) that Android-based customers don't exhibit this behavior just as much, but there are reasons for it:
1. Some successfully resisted the iPhone fever when the first iPhone was released;
2. Some managed to uproot themselves from the Apple veggie garden and switch to another device (which is another form of resistance);
3. Some got pissed by some Apple decisions post-sell or simply didn't like some of the limitations (castrated BT stack, non-removable battery, lack of SD Card, etc) so moved to the next thing.
Therefore, the Android crowd is less "sheepish", so-to-speak. Again, this has little-to-nothing to do with intelligence, but mostly emotion and zeal.
To me, it's amazing that Apple's iPhone failed to establish a near-monopoly in the long term; they had all the prerequisites met, the touchscreen market was practically virgin at the time, all the world was theirs to invade and keep. My personal, maybe subjective opinion is that they failed in locking in the near-monopoly because:
- they kept the prices absurdly high;
- they inflexibly kept their walled garden shut;
- they ignored independent crowds which hate (by principle) to be locked in (aka "You HAVE to use iTunes" or "you HAVE to have a jailed phone");
- furthermore, they endlessly fought crowds' attempts to liberate the iPhone, alienating people more and more until many of them just said "fuck this, i'll switch".
Their very recent attempts to enter the cheaper market will probably be mildly successful, but I think it's a "too little, too late" attempt. They will likely grab a few % off the top (aka people who nearly could afford an iPhone 5S but were not quite there yet, financially), but the much larger "cheap smartphone" market will not care.
...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
Well, no, but 9M customers did.
And yes, one person can be represented as 100 customers... counter-intuitive but that's how it works.
...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
That's not what cognitive dissonance is at all. It is not "the idea that other people could prefer something that you yourself do not approve of".
Maybe you could use some introspection yourself to try and figure out why you insisted on using a term which is frequently applied to apple fan boys, even though it doesn't work at all in the context.
What it is, is "the discomfort experienced when simultaneously holding two or more conflicting cognitions", in the words of Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance
People forget when Microsoft injected cash in Apple when it was going nowhere.
That was when Apple was a computer company. Apple is now a phone, tablet and music device company, its in a different market. In the old computer market Apple had a lot of 800-lb gorillas as competitors, in the new devices market Apple is one of the 800-lb gorillas.
Yes Apple still sells computer but that is not their focus. The revenue largely comes from the devices side. Apple has even changed its name to remove "Computer".
That's terrific data. Just to add to that Microsoft has done research on latency using devices much to expensive, big... to be in a phone. Humans can detect and strongly prefer touch latency down to about 10ms. The numbers are staggering in terms of preference.
Nine million is still three times the fans of the most recent season of Keeping Up with the Kardashians.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
Would the iPhone 5C exist if Android wasn't around? What would the prices and features be like? Same on Android. Fact is, consumers benefit from healthy competition in the smartphone market. It drives innovation and keeps prices in check. Why people want on side to fail is beyond me. I have an Android phone and am ecstatic to hear about the new iPhone success!
Well, no, but 9M customers did.
And yes, one person can be represented as 100 customers... counter-intuitive but that's how it works.
I suppose the lack of a reptilian brain is preventing me from understanding the marketing-speak here...
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
No one notices
That's a cool case, but... how do you hold the phone up to your ear?
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
There's nothing interesting or revolutionary about the iPhone 5.
The 5 is discontinued, its the 5S that is of interest now. Personally I find the mobility coprocessor interesting. Instead of frequently getting a GPS fix the 5S can get a fix less frequently and determine intermediary positions by the motion it senses via the motion processor while the CPU and GPS circuits are powered down. It could greatly reduce battery usage during some activities.
Also as a developer I think the A7 CPU is interesting, opening up some new possibilities for apps. I used to do some work in computer vision, it may be more practical to do such stuff on the A7.
You may be in the market for one of these. Sadly no iOS but they do have "Exclusive ring tones and alerts played by the London Symphony Orchestra" and at $10K for an ugly case and very little functionality they make iPhones look cheap.
apple just signed a deal with china mobile, the biggest operator there
giving a free iphone to every worker will be awesome advertising, not charity or gratitude
I think it's the perception of it, rather than the actual mathematical cost. Also it's a comfort zone thing, e.g. the time spent finding similar apps (some have the same name but are different in functionality, etc.)
...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
Funny :)
In layman terms, for a company it doesn't matter whether their stock is bought by one person or 9 million.
...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
Or, someone bought 30 iPhones and hoped to sell them for a premium once Apple ran out.
I'm not denying that Apple made money, merely pointing out that "9 million units sold" does not mean 9 million people got one.
Unless you intend to apply that rule to the other smartphone manufacturers (ahem, Samsung) - oh yeah, those manufacturers don't even tell you what the sell through is, because they don't know (or want us to know). They only tell you what's shipped or is lining retail stores' shelves. Not what has been bought either.
Of course, this is Apple, where we have to invent newer, more rigorous criteria for determining success and let everyone else slide.
Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting
>>>> who is still buying Apple
>> you're experiencing...cognitive dissonance
Nah - I know individuals are buying, but I really I want to know which demographics are buying: existing Apple customers, new customers, age groups (seems like Harleys and iPhones are becoming Baby Boomer staples), income levels, etc.
I'm sure the information has been collated out there. Maybe you should pay the $X thousand to subscribe to a study (or commission one) and find out. Maybe you can crowdfund it.
Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting
To me, it's amazing that Apple's iPhone failed to establish a near-monopoly in the long term;
That is based on the assumption that monopoly was their goal; Apple isn't Microsoft. I think Apple's long term goals are more about making money than getting market domination. Would they like to sell more products? Yes, but they are not willing to sell things at a loss just for market share.
- they ignored independent crowds which hate (by principle) to be locked in (aka "You HAVE to use iTunes" or "you HAVE to have a jailed phone");
This the probably the same amount of people who want their phones to play Ogg. Also the walled garden was a selling point to many consumers who were tired of the Trojans and malware they got on other platforms. Yes you have to trust Apple, but the alternative isn't great.
Their very recent attempts to enter the cheaper market will probably be mildly successful, but I think it's a "too little, too late" attempt.
The 5C isn't an attempt to enter the cheap market. Pundits and analysts were all predicting it would; it's not. It's the same price as Apple prices on the older generation of phones.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
Brittney Spears has sold millions of albums and McDonalds has sold billions of hambugers. It doesn't make either of them are good. It just means lots of people have shitty taste.
At the iPhone 5S release it came in 2nd, losing only to the LG G2. I'd say that's one argument you have to shelve for now.
who pays $900 for a smartphone?
The majority of people using smartphones in the USA...
$199 iPhone 5S
Contract Subsidy of ~$30/month, for 24 months = $720
$919 total
Of course if you sign up for Edge or Next with AT&T or Verizon you can pay slightly less:
$30 contract subsidy + $27/mo for Next = 57 * 12 months, 684+199 = $883
And as you point out, the standalone price of the smartphone is less, so buying the phone seperately and getting a no contract service is usually the best financial option.
Hmm.. Maybe I'm one of those cognitive dissonance people. I've always felt uneasy about Apple products. They have a history of rent seeking, and are not even hiding it: super-expensive addons, non user serviceable batteries, no removable storage on their phones, proprietary connectors, total vendor lock-in in both hardware and software, significant barriers to entry for software on their devices. I have been actively avoiding Apple products. Even if there were no alternative, I would prefer to go without. Looking around at meetings (at a University) feels a little creepy. People use almost exclusively Apple products: iPhones, iPads, Macs. Some of my family members are also heavy Apple product users. I just do not understand this phenomenon, and probably never will. I do not think the alternatives are better than Apple's stuff in any significant technical way, but they are not nearly as oppressive.
Most people get their phones subsidized.
A subsidized iPhone 4S is free. My guess is that when most people have the option of a "free" phone and staying with your carrier for 2 years (which you're likely to do anyway), they take the free phone.
In other words, I would hazard a guess that not many people in the U.S. are using an iPhone 3G. I would love some statistics to prove me either right or wrong.
Help! I'm a slashdot refugee.
If you don't care about the color, and are hiding it anyway, the smart move is to sell it to someone who cares about fashion and is willing to overpay for the less-available gold version.
That or get your kicks announcing that you have one and don't care, though you can continue to do that without actually having a gold iPhone, so I'd sell it for sure.
Apple would produce just over 5 million iPhone 5S units ahead of the device's launch weekend; if that number's accurate, and Apple sold every single one, it would mean Apple sold roughly 4 million iPhone 5C units in order to reach that 9-million-sold figure for both models.
No. The 9 million number takes into account online orders for phones as well. As their 5s supply ran out, many/most ran to their carriers or Apple's website and ordered it online. It does not [necessarily] mean that 4M 5C's were purchased.
BS. Name one single Android phone that is faster. No benchmark test anywhere legitimate puts ANY phone above the 5s in speed at launch date. All the test scores from all the usual mobile tests came back in favor of iPhone 5s. Every single one. Sure it will be surpassed eventually but to say it was comparatively slow at launch date compared to top Android phones is a flat out fabrication.
A shit-ton on ebay would still be an infinitesimally small percentage of 9M. Small enough for it to be insignificant when calculating how many people got iPhones.
So, prior to iOS 7's release, 93% of iOS devices were running iOS 6. Apple announced earlier today that over 200M devices are already running iOS 7. And I don't understand why you're suggesting this problem should be starting now, since you're saying that the iPhone line has finally gotten long enough that the problem would manifest just as it did on Android, despite the fact that the iOS product line goes back prior to Android's first device on the market and has gone through more major iterations of the OS as well. As such, we should have expected to see the issue of fragmentation manifest on iOS first, not second.
For reference, the iPhone 4 is the oldest model that runs iOS 7, so that means that any new models since June 2010 can run the latest version of the OS. If the iOS 6 numbers are any indication, only about 7% of iOS users have devices that are older than that, so OS fragmentation should remain low.
How is this possibly insightful? Funny, maybe. Troll, definitely (look at me crunch the femur...). Apple was dying in the 90s, then they introduced the G3 processor which actually made their computers fast. Then they pumped out a couple more Classic OSes (8 and 9) then jumped to the current Unix-based OS while still allowing people to use older apps and making the GUI basically the same as what people were used to. Then the iPods/iPhone/iPad devices came out and murdered everything else for awhile. Apple became one of the most profitable companies in the world and still is. Their iPhone isn't anything new anymore, but it's still a great device (okay...iOS 7 is a little like Windows Me).
Anyway, while Apple has never really succeeded in the enterprise market, they do just fine in the consumer PC market and excel at the device market. Blackberry is dying. Apple is doing just fine.
Unfortunately for AAPL, its investors and its long term business, the number of sales of the phone in the first three days is good really for only one thing -- this month's revenue.
Its a given that last week some percentage of iPhone users were sitting on devices that were out of contract. Its also pretty much a given that the majority of people in that state are waiting for a new iPhone, since they would've already switched to another handset if that was their intent. So its just basic math at that point -- how many phones do they have actively being used globally, and how many of them are up for contract. With their large customer base, if they sold 3m of them, it would've been a complete flop. But 9m doesn't mean it *wasn't*.
What investors want to see is:
- Does their existing trend in losing users taper off at this point? A large but shrinking market is not good for long term investment, even if short term revenue is solid.
- Do the devices start to sell better in the markets where Apple isn't #1 or #2? (Which is a lot of them outside of the North American market!)
- Do the handsets move the needle with software or media sales?
AAPL, as a stock, has always been a "fun" one to invest in -- you get solid 5-10% swings driven by inexperienced investors, and you can game those constantly to make a quick buck. It won't start to crawl its way back up to where it was before its near-constant downward trends since Tim Cook took over until the professional investors start seeing growing substance behind the hype.
I think vertu's actually come with a worldwide consierge service and other similar perks for the ultra rich.
I'd love to know who is still buying Apple devices when Android gizmos do pretty much the same thing for a fraction of the cost.
The devil's in the details, in this case, the definition of "pretty much."
I can assure you that Apple does not see this fashionability as a problem. On the contrary, Apple assiduously uses fashion to both create and retain customers, and has been doing so since their beginning. Fashion is perhaps what Apple understands and other device makers who would sell their first-born for nine million unit sales in a weekend emphatically do not. That said, if you think that the cohesiveness and stickiness of the Apple ecosystem is just fashion, I have a poop-coloured zune to sell you. Someday, people will understand that consumers don't know what the specs on phones even mean, they just want a device that's priced within reach, looks cool, and works well for their needs.
Last time I looked, this was Slashdot, not Apple.com. (Yep, just checked, this is definitely /.) Apple enjoys some popularity here only by dint of the fact that Steve Jobs was a slightly less evil bastard than Bill Gates is, but it's only a matter of degree.
That is true, and that likely is a factor at play here. After all, more markets means more sales, since increasing the number of available purchases reduces one of the constraints on the number of sales they can have. I suspect that affects the 5C more than the 5S, however, given that the 5C didn't sell out. As such, shifting the units around to more markets would open up more sales.
That said, supply for the 5S is being far outstripped by demand (it's already back-ordered through late October in the US), suggesting that the real constraint they're facing is not one of having enough people to sell to, but rather simply having enough product to sell. Whether they opened up China or not on day one, they'd have sold out of the 5S regardless. Not to mention that there's always been a booming gray market for Chinese buyers to grab as many units as possible in the US and elsewhere and ship them back to China, meaning that the opening on day one in China may not be as significant as it would have otherwise been, had the gray market not been in place (in fact, rumors indicate the gray market is still doing fine since white market sales are not sufficient to meet demand).
Yup, we updated daughter's hand-me-down 3S to a 4 last year. In a year or two, when I upgrade to whatever she'll get my five. (wife refuses to give up BB!)
I drank what? -- Socrates
Yup. No one wants is 4" phone. No one.....except 9 million people.....but other than that no one.
It's either on the beat or off the beat, it's that easy.
I moderate therefore I rule!
--
Or, someone bought 30 iPhones and hoped to sell them for a premium once Apple ran out.
I'm not denying that Apple made money, merely pointing out that "9 million units sold" does not mean 9 million people got one.
Unless you intend to apply that rule to the other smartphone manufacturers (ahem, Samsung) - oh yeah, those manufacturers don't even tell you what the sell through is, because they don't know (or want us to know).
Sure, and if the article we're commenting on was about one of the other smartphone manufacturers, I would have said something about them. But it's not - it's about Apple, so that's who the comment is about.
It's not a personal vendetta, or that "we have to invent newer, more rigorous criteria for determining success" as some fanboys may say as a response to perceived criticism; the fact is this is an article about Apple stuff, so the conversation is about Apple stuff, not Samsung or any other device maker.
Sheesh.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
Exactly! My Ti99/4a (with 16k RAM!) still works fine and does everything a computer neds to do: read data, process, write data and you can even play games on it!
I drank what? -- Socrates
Same here. Some of my friends are on the iPhone 4S, and they are not really tempted to upgrade. Some are coming to the end of their contract, and they are contemplating going on a cheaper contract without taking a new iPhone (shock!).
Except they where on their death bed. MS infused cash and that helped not at all.
Jobs came back, Gave Ive the leeway he needed, and pushed for thing no one else was doing to a very high degree of standard.
Tim Cook does none of that. I said it when Jobs passed: "Apple will decline in the market a year after his death becasue the share holders wont' hire a real innovative drive for CEO."
What has happened under Cook? His great 'innovation' is to move Apples products form a expensive and desired high end market and create an cheapo plastic version of the phone.
Of this keeps up, Cook and the share holders will turn apple into Dell.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
In the 1970s and early 1980s, Opel and Volkswagen were not known for the generous amount of equipment included as standard on their cars. Things like the passenger side wing mirror and IIRC even rear-window heating were optional extras on the base models.
Both companies sold models with the trim level indicated as 'C' (Golf C, Kadett C). Now, officially this was an abbreviation for 'Comfort', but as this was one of the lower-spec models, we always called them 'Crisis' instead.
What calculation did you use to arrive at a 30% increase in target customer base?
Lemmings
What's happened under Cook?
iPhone:
an entirely new manufacturing process unlike any ever done for any consumer device ever allowing for thinner and lighter
an entirely new GUI
mac laptop:
The move to high resolution (retina display)
standardizing on SSD allowing the operating system to use a small frequent write strategy that won't work for HDD
desktop:
an entirely new pro line
the move to fusion technology
etc...
IIRC, the 5S lost to the G2 in just one of Anand's dozens of benchmarks. It was the top smartphone in all the rest.
I wish this totally derogatory comment were nonsense. There are some elements of truth and some things you got wrong. Talking about the USA (other countries complicate things)
In general the migration has been from Android (and secondary BlackBerry, Windows Phone 6...) to iPhone not the reverse. There are more or less 3 buying cycles in the USA now (postpay market only):
a) 1/3rd of the population gets a new iPhone if their contract is up and Apple releases (i.e. they time for the Apple release)
b) 1/3rd of the population gets a new iPhone phone when their contract is up or they need one.
c) 1/3rd of the population chooses from the available phones when their contract is up. They generally go for Androids.
The migration pattern is (c) to (b) or (a) and (b) to (a), not the reverse as your comment implies. That is group (c) grows and grows from recruiting from the other groups. What's unclear is how large group (c) will stabilize at. There are a large group of people that don't want Apple products and have some resistance to them or loves the features of Android (and secondarily BlackBerry). How large they stay is a question. The migration from (b) to (a) makes sense and helps to create the hype.
As far as a US monopoly they are heading towards one. Their share has been increasing, even on AT&T where it was absurdly high. The carriers are worried about it and are doing stuff to counter it to some extent. So the answer about whether Apple develops a US monopoly is "maybe" and "they are getting there".
As for the cheap smartphone market which in the USA is prepay, Apple has a low share. Their play for this market will be the large number of used iPhones put into circulation as the iPhone 4s reach end of contract (i.e. the next 6 months we will see if share skyrockets).
Android before the iPhone was like Blackberry, nothing like what it ended up being. They supposedly did eventually have a long term goal of making a touch screen version, but that would have been after (my speculation) YEARS of the BB-like phone... Seeing the iPhone changed their goal to abort the BB-like phone and go towards the 2nd goal originally.
Clearly GTA5 has sold 20 million copies exclusively to 16 year old boys.
You do realize apple controls how many are made, where they are released, and knows how many are sold the first month for each release?
No doubt there is a bean counter who figures out that they will do 20M 5s/5c the first month, so next year if they add 2 more countries they can do 11M day one, "breaking the record" on what will be 22M sales with growth.
These things aren't left up to chance. You'll know something is wrong when iPhone next is not 120% of iPhone previous.
Phone apps are inexpensive that it is easy to buy similar stuff for both platforms. Couple that with offsite storage like Dropbox, and swapping from iOS to Android and back consists of moving the SIM card from device to device, getting the new device to read in changes and propagation from contacts, and the job is done. The two things that are tough to move cross platforms are movies, mainly due to DRM issues, and game saves.
Jumping platforms is painless for the most part, although there can be apps that have no counterpart on the other platform.
I saw that. I had seen the loss to the G2 and the loss to some high end Android tablets and conflated the two. I agree it is in 1st place solidly.
Just be careful on the OS updates. I know 2 people that bricked their phones doing OS7 updates last week and 1 who was unlucky enough to brick 2 doing previous updates.
The only good news is of the 4 brickings, 3 were covered under warranty either through Apple or their providers.
Of course that's just my opinion...... you could be wrong!
Cristal, Maybach, diamonds in your iPhone... ...We'll never be royals...
9 million iPhones is not so impressive if you consider that 1.5 million Android phones are sold every day on average. And only the ones registered at play.google.com are counted. So 9 million iPhones on the first weekend is six days of Android sales. But this was the weekend when the hyped iPhone was first sold. Later the numbers will return to normal figures. And there Apples iOS will remain a solid number two in the market.
Moot point. Apple will be 1 more year releasing a new phone. A new Android phone will come out in the next 3 months that again massively beats the iPhone 5S. In 6 months, most new high end Android phones will be faster.
Apple's failing is they are one company fighting a dozen.
I thought it would be stupid flashy bling, and then I saw one. It's more understated than it appeared at first, not bad really. Still, I'd get the dark one.
Four days in and just getting to 60%
https://mixpanel.com/trends/#report/ios_7
Most likely more people have updated to IOS 7 than the total number of people who have EVER updated an Android device.
The largest segment will be the iPhone 3GS which was sold until 2011. My old 3GS still works well on IOS6. But wouldn't have the horsepower to run IOS7.
Bah those integrated circuits were just a repackaging of normal Circuits.
Satellite communication, just an other radio communication.
GPS, ok we see a neat little effect with Satellite communication, lets use some basic match to give you location.
Internet just an extra overhead from computer to computer communication.
Flat Monitors, ohhh a beefed up digial watch!
mice, You mean the upside down trackball?
GUI, well we are already displaying text, we slow down to pc to put that text in a little box
Cell Phones, we have normal phones but we use the radio communication too... Lame.
Wi-Fi, Bluetooth more radio hackery.
CDs, DVDs... You mean LaserDisks?
They came from incremental changes over time... None of these things when released were a huge Wow! Like dropping the Atomic Bomb.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Rear window heating was optional on luxury brands back then!
>> it could quiet some of the naysayers who have spent the past several months suggesting that Apple's best years are behind it
Not me. I'd love to know who is still buying Apple devices when Android gizmos do pretty much the same thing for a fraction of the cost.
They do pretty much the same? Have you ever tried using no-name detergent or some other value brand? Quite often, the "cheaper" brand is cheaper for a reason and you will end up either using more to get the same effect or you end up with dirtier clothes.
While both an Android and iPhone can make and receive calls, send and receive texts and other things, there are some things that simply work better on iPhones. There are also some killer games and apps that simply are not available on Android regardless of what handset you have.
If you are going to spend money on a smartphone plan with data, you might as well get the best experience possible, otherwise you should just get a dumb phone instead for calls and texting and save yourself some money on not having a data plan.
Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.
That would be fantastic, but it seems pretty unrealistic at this point.
Oh, HP ... Why do you get all your CEO's from the Smile Time employment center for special needs adults?
Required reading for internet skeptics
Sure, but what I was getting at was that the iPhone 3G before it was already a rather popular model at the time, and yet it, the original iPhone, and the users who chose for some reason to not upgrade only represented 7% of the installed user base. The 3GS most certainly will be the largest portion of users running iOS 6 and before, but I don't see why they would cause fragmentation to increase in any meaningful quantity, given the tendency of iPhone users to upgrade, the ease with which upgrading occurs, and the fact that later models were far more popular (i.e. the newer models will dwarf the old).
Not moot at all. It was a rebuttal to brunes69's false claim that "the 5S was a comparatively slow phone to top of the line Android devices before it even came out. So your facts are garbled quite a bit."
Back in the real world, old phones are resold, given away or traded in and do not get placed on the scrapheap once their original owner dispenses with them.
Enter the cheap market with a phone only 1/6 cheaper? lol lol
Didn't say "dirt cheap". Also it's the first iteration, they would rather corrode their "premium company" image slowly rather than thrash it all at once.
Next year there'll be a cheaper one available and so on, and so forth.
...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
My bad, I was thinking globally, because thinking globally makes sense for a global company.
I'm considering large emergent markets such as China and India, also living in Eastern Europe I can tell how things are shaping up around here. Until 2009-ish all I could see around was iPhone. People used to "smuggle" them from abroad, because the official market penetration was low (low offer with mobile companies). Now we're looking at a wide range of available phones, including domestic phone brands, all Android-based (doh!).
As far as I can see in Eastern Europe, people pick their new phone as they see fit (be it either Android-based or iOS-based) and stick with the OS for good. Less than 10% switch; I have access to a sample size of around 20K people who bought phones during last 6 years and the only complication to the formula is people massively dumping Blackberries and Nokias in favor of either Android or iOS (and the breakdown os 50-50).
...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
75% is a global figure, it is very much biased towards the working poor. Assuming you are in the USA the number is about 50% and concentrated downmarket.
1. Address more memory....whether they'll ever produce a 1Gb model is another story......
2. Faster.......if only from the fact that you are moving double the bits
3. Easier to create emulator for iOS apps on OSX.....don't have to emulate 32 bits on 64bit OSX
Moot point. Apple will be 1 more year releasing a new phone. A new Android phone will come out in the next 3 months that again massively beats the iPhone 5S. In 6 months, most new high end Android phones will be faster.
Apple's failing is they are one company fighting a dozen.
Silly Apple fanbois with their Hipster Geegaws, and their fancy velocipedes and tailored spats. They shall recieve their Comeuppance, I tell you, Their Comeuppance!
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
How is this off topic? New iPhone means new iTunes... even if you don't have it installed!
Yeah, I talk to grown-ups mostly, too. Not sure why that's surprising to so many people.
Emacs: for people who just never know when to
Detractors tend to attribute Apples success to "hype," yet there are numerous products that have been heavily promoted and yet failed to sell. Consider Microsoft's "Surface" tablet/netbooks. Remember the ads with music and the acrobatic demonstrations of its clever (and brightly colored) keyboard covers. Brilliant ad, on a par with Apple's best. Yet the Surface tanked (Round two now coming up).
So what is it about Apple? At this point, it's not so much about the hype as about the brand. Most people who use Apple's products appreciate the attention that Apple gives to designing the user experience. It's subtle things like how fast Apple's phones and tablets respond to touch. Apple has built a reputation of only making premium products--no cheap, shoddily built stuff just to build market share. Other companies tend to have some good models and some not-so-good models. You buy Apple, and you know that you are getting a quality product that has been carefully tuned to optimize the user experience. You can trust Apple not to push specs at the expense of battery life, for example. So a lot of people probably ordered a new iPhone just because their old phone was two years old and out of contract, and based upon their previous experience with the company, and they trusted Apple to have something good. And judging from the early reviews, it appears that Apple has delivered once again.
I can sum up your long post in 3 words: haters gonna hate.
Their very recent attempts to enter the cheaper market will probably be mildly successful, but I think it's a "too little, too late" attempt.
The 5C isn't an attempt to enter the cheap market. Pundits and analysts were all predicting it would; it's not. It's the same price as Apple prices on the older generation of phones.
It was an attempt to enter the cheap market, it just wasn't a good one.
It is, a lower speced version of the flagship phone, that is the dictionary definition of trying to enter the cheap market. Don't be fooled because they didn't actually make it cheap to buy.
To use a car analogy, Mazda sells the 2L Mazda 3 as it's mainstream car and the 1.5L Mazda 2 as it's cheap car. Mazda is trying to sell the Mazda 2 at people who think the Mazda 3 is too expensive and are happy to live with a smaller engine. Apple is doing the exact same thing, except they aren't bothering with the lower prices that Mazda put on the 2.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
Probably the same kind of people who buy Macs, even though Dell computers do the same thing for a fraction of the cost
Good analogy, people are buying a product that is internally identical, but costs many times as much simply because of the brand.
Or the people who buy a Mercedes Benz, even though a Hyundai does the same thing for a fraction of the cost.
Bad analogy, Mercedes offers a lot of cars that Hyundai simply dont offer. A better car analogy is refusing to buy a Nissan Skyline 370GT which retails at $40,000 because it's a Nissan but then buying an Infiniti G37 for $80,000 because it's an Infiniti.
Because it's fairly obvious you dont know much about cars, they're both the same. The Infinity G37 and Skyline 370GT are both V36 Skylines with different badges and slightly different trims. In fact Nissan invented the Infiniti brand to sell Nissan cars at higher prices in the US (Same with Honda/Acura and Toyota/Lexus).
Seeing as Android now offers more features at a lower price point, the only reason people buy Apple is because of the brand. So it's not even comparing Skylines, Choosing an Iphone is more like choosing a car with its bonnet (hood) welded shut, a steering wheel that only responds when the company that made the car allows it and to change a tyre, you need to remove the chassis and the drive train over say a Toyota Yaris, BWM 5 series or Lamborghini. But hey, people will do that.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
Funny that no other technology company has been able to make their products fashionable or hire marketing firms.
You mean they made it better. First company to use 5 GB micro hard drives, when everyone else was using tiny flash storage or bulky notebook or even desktop hard drives. And used a 400 Mpbs interface when everyone else was using 11 Mpbs USB or even parallel. And a software interface that didn't suck hairy goat balls.
And yet Apple has either remained dominant or competitive in the markets it has chosen to pursue, long after bell bottoms have fallen in and out of fashion and back again. Almost as if they make decent products after all, and you're just casually playing the 'fashion' card to deny them any legitimacy.
Huh, interesting.
It is, a lower speced version of the flagship phone, that is the dictionary definition of trying to enter the cheap market. Don't be fooled because they didn't actually make it cheap to buy.
It depends on what price range you consider cheap. You can get cheap smartphones for $50 or so (with contract). Apple is not going after this market.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
If I'm paying for my next phone I'll probably go with something along the lines of that ZTE FirefoxOS phone. But if paying the price for a top tier phone, I'm going with the iPhone if it's the same price as the top Android choices. It's just the build quality. My wife has an old 4S and I prefer it over my current GS3.
http://www.accountkiller.com/en/delete-slashdot-account Stop visiting Slashdot.
So...re-reading my response a week later...I think I can count myself as a "Whoosh" candidate. My bad. :-)
There's a rumor that Apple is going to show its appreciation to all of the Chinese sweatshop workers who made this possible by giving them a free iPhone with service. Is that true?
No. But Apple has shown its appreciation by doing more to improve working conditions and salaries in China than any other Western company.