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Apple To Cut iPhone Production By 10%: Nikkei (nikkei.com)
A new report from Nikkei Asian Review says that Apple will cut iPhone production by around 10% in the first quarter of 2017. From the report: This comes after the company slashed output in January-March 2016 due to accumulated inventory of the iPhone 6s line at the end of 2015. That experience led Apple to curb production of the iPhone 7, introduced in September, by around 20%. But the phones still have sold more sluggishly than expected. Information on production of the latest models and global sales suggests cuts in both the 7 and 7 Plus lines in the coming quarter. The larger iPhone 7 Plus, which features two cameras on its back face, remains popular. But a shortage of camera sensors has curbed Apple's ability to meet demand for the phones. U.S. research company IDC forecasts global smartphone shipments in 2016 on par with the 2015 level. Even Apple has had difficulty creating appealing new features, stifling demand from customers who otherwise would look to upgrade to the latest device.
Who could have guessed: removing features from a product does not make it more appealing! Shocking, I know.
Apparently, neither does adding or improving features (7 Plus compared with the 6s Plus) :
MUCH improved CPU (Quad Core, vs. Dual Core for 6s Plus), and MUCH faster, too (40% faster than the 6s Plus). Fastest CPU in the mobile industry
MUCH improved GPU (50% faster than the 6s Plus). Fastest GPU in the mobile industry
More RAM (3 GB, as opposed to the 2 GB on the 6s Plus)
Faster Cellular MODEM (depending on model) (4G Speeds up to 450 Mbps vs. 300 Mbps for the 6s Plus)
MUCH improved water-resistance. Now IP67 rated (and easily beats that spec in real-world tests).
Home-button no longer mechanical. (Annoying breaking-point before)
MUCH improved and DUAL cameras, with better low-light sensitivity, ability to do pseudo depth-mapping, and 2 x optical zoom and 10 digital zoom. 4k rear, 1080p front video recording, vs. 6s Plus 720p recording on front camera. Better flash, too.
MUCH improved Bluetooth from the industry-leading Apple W1 chip (backwards-compatible w/std. BT also)
Stereo Speakers
Extended Battery Life (over 1 hour more vs. the 6s Plus).
Twice the maximum storage (up to 256 GB vs. the 6s Plus 128 GB max). 25% Brighter Display (over the 6s Plus), with wide (P3) color gamut
And yet, all people want to do is bitch about a damn headphone jack...
Yeah, nothing new to see here, move along.
Most of that the average consumer doesn't give a shit about, however their music and ability to plug in their expensive headphones and charge the phone matters. The average person would look at your list and say well their are no upgrades there for me at all. The 6s is more than fast enough for most people, graphics are fine and while water resistence is nice it is hardly a killer feature. Improved dual cameras is really the only step up for the selfie obsessed average user. It is not enough to simply incrementally improve a device when you want someone to spend the best part of a Grand year to year on upgrades.
Well, just goes to show how important to people that headphone jack was, doesn't it?
So not sure why this is a big deal, the holiday season is over, the phone has been out a while, and demand is dropping, and really phones are also no longer special anymore.
The simple reality is both Apple and Android phones originally were able to make huge improvements each cycle, simply because phone technology hadn't moved for so long. The problem is now phones have somewhat caught up to as far as technology can go. You can get a slightly better processor, a bit more ram, a better camera, and better screen but for the most part, perhaps a slightly larger battery, but there is nothing new and nothing that people need in a phone. Phones are now to the point where, they do everything and more that most people want, so the demand for newer and better isn't really as high. While we will certainly see some improvements in the next few years, unless something unexpected comes along that can make manufactures have to swing for the fences again, phones, like PCs before them, have become more boring in their lifecycle, which is just the cyclical nature of products, and anyone thinking the Samsung 8, or the iPhone 8 will bring something new and exciting will probably be rather disappointed.
Accessories and software will probably see the biggest changes, things like the AirPods will become more available at a large number of prices ranges, as well as we should continue to see improvements in software, but those things don't require a new phone for the most part unless, something changes such as where there is a new chipset say going faster than LTE, and even that will have a harder time getting traction than the 3g to LTE shift since most people are quite happy with the LTE performance.
Apple Pay
Yawn.
Watch
Double yawn. Niche gimmick, that even the apple faithful are trying to find uses for.
Don't get me wrong there are some uses -- cyclists and a few other places where a wrist device is especially convenient for notifications... and my sister in law loves hers -- her officeplace has a no smartphones while working policy to keep employees from texting etc while they are supposed to be working. The apple watch is one step of ahead of company policy... her phone is neatly put away out of sight, and she can still get messages from friends etc on the watch.
TV
Overpriced and not as good as the more open alternatives. Airplay is nice though, but requires you to be fully enmeshed into the apple ecosystem, which im not. We have a mix of devices and platforms in our home.
several versions of Mac
Sure. If you want a lightweight ultraportable they have lots to choose from. If you want anything else.. an inexpensive durable laptop for students... nope. A powerhouse laptop with lots of ram and connectivity for pros... nope. But a luxury ultraportable with great screen, great battery life (aside from the pro's issues), and no connectivity... they've got 3 lines to choose from.
On the desktop... unmitigated garbage. Overpriced laptops crammed into all-one-screens defeating every possible advantage of desktops... well pro units made to look like garbage cans.
better displays,
They stopped making desktop monitors. The laptop displays from dell etc are just as good... and you can get touchscreens if you want them.
faster SSDs
They aren't that much faster than *other* decent SSDs And they are expensive and soldered in so you can't upgrade them. I'll take a slightly slower one that I can easily replace with a 2TB model in 3 years any time thanks.
free upgrades of iOS and OSX/macOS
And no option to downgrade afterwards if you aren't happen. Even Microsoft, who has gotten so much wrong lately, at least got that right.
I always wondered why one would pay over US$900 for something that has functionality of other devices at half the cost; and would be "obsolete" in a year.
Stability, ease of use, frequency of updates, much better overall security, etc, etc. iPhone is far from obsolete in 1-2 years, they receive updates for at least four.
Apple has completely stagnated under Tim Cook. What have we got since Steve? Bluetooth headphones and touch bar.
Apple Pay, Watch, TV, several versions of Macs, several versions of iPhones and iPads, better displays, faster SSDs, free upgrades of iOS and OSX/macOS
Apple Pay - Well, let's give that a chance, but it hasn't revolutionised the world yet.
Apple Watch - Whatever its performance in absolute financial terms- or even relative to the pre-existing wearables market- by the standards and expectations Apple clearly had at its launch, this has been an obvious flop so far. I know it has a significant percentage of the smartwatch market, but a significant percentage of bugger all is still bugger all. No-one cares.
Apple TV - Seriously? That's been around in various forms for approaching a decade now (since before Jobs' death) and it's never set the world on fire.
"Several versions of Macs" - Er... so what?! That's what computer companies are *expected* to do! (Shades of Chris Rock's infamous routine here). It'd have been pretty damning if they *hadn't* released any new Macs since 2011! Says nothing about whether the changes are good, revolutionary, inspiring or not. And the latest MacBook Pro- released a considerable time after the last major revision- has had a lot of criticism for its "Air-ified", non-upgradeable, non-replaceable battery design. In fact, I get the impression there are a lot of professional Mac users for whom this is the last straw.
"Several versions of iPhones and iPads" - Utterly ditto. Apple's modus operandi is releasing new versions and deprecating old ones- the question is whether they've continued to be revolutionary when they do this.
"Better displays" - The retina displays are nice, I'll admit, and AFAIK were involved in developing those, so I'll credit them that far. Not revolutionary, though.
"Faster SSDs" - I'd expect that from *any* computer manufacturer using third-party SSD technology. So what? If there's a revolution there, it's not Apple's making.
"Free upgrades of iOS and OSX/macOS" - Nothing wrong with that, but it's hardly revolutionary in itself, is it?
Honestly, I think you've made the original poster's case for them. There's nothing there that's taken off in a truly revolutionary manner.
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