Apple's latest financials are still pretty decent even though iPhone sales are slowing Apple reported healthy revenues, beating analyst estimates for its fiscal second quarter despite decreasing demand and production of its iPhone X smartphone. During an earnings call on Tuesday CEO Tim Cook said customers chose the iPhone X more than any other iPhone each week in March following its release in November. Apple …
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"...iPhone sales are slowing."
I would have bought the next iPhone, in spite of the price and in spite of the DRM-infested charging cables. But then you left out the headphone socket. If your goal was to keep pushing until you found my limit of patience, well you found it.
Worth mentioning, 'Strange Parts' on YouTube has demonstrated that the headphone socket could have been included, because he modified his iPhone to include it. Thus revealing that many of the ever-changing excuses provided by Apple and Apple fanbois were false. Revealing it to be simply a cynical ploy.
I'm not sure if the lack of a headphone socket matters that much to many people. Personally, I've used Bluetooth headsets for years to avoid getting the cables snagged. I've also recently started seeing a few more people with the Apple toothbrushes in their ears, so they obviously seem to like them. But I do think your underlying point is valid: Apple are tinkering rather than developing.
"I'm not sure if the lack of a headphone socket matters that much to many people"
69% of people polled wouldn't buy a phone without a headphone jack. So, if you don't have strong brand loyalty it's a death sentence to remove the port.
Source: https://www.poll-maker.com/results1968647x5f5D4239-51#tab-2
69% of people polled wouldn't buy a phone without a headphone jack.
The result doesn't surprise me, but I'm not so sure that when it comes down to the sale whether it would really that much. I think the sales of phones without removable storage (very important for me) or removable batteries (not so, even though I do have two replacements) tend to show this. Note, it's not as if I'm advocating the toothbrushes but I can understand why Apple phased the jack out, and not just because it saw an opportunity to fleece the customers…
Not that it fusses me that much: my S5 has a (waterproof) jack if I want it, but I always use my Jabra sports thingy. For a while Bluetooth headsets seemed to be a strange mix of the expensive and the shitty but it now looks like you can get something with excellent battery life (> 10 hours) for around € 50.
Apple didn't phase the jack out, they just removed it on the next model. I'd argue that phasing out would mean half a jack, and then no jack. Apple simply removed it and lied about there not being enough space for it to shift expensive bluetooth headtoothbrushesphones. As we've seen since there is enough space for a jack, and you can build your own if you really really don't want to simply buy an Android phone.
An interesting comparison is Fruit has both revenue and profit growth about every quarter. Also, they seem to be building a service business without too much fanfare. This makes you wonder what else they have under wraps to announce in the future that might be a big hit. While Itsy Bitsy Morons seem to losing sales every quarter even if their profits wobble. The Morons are talking about how they plan to make a major splash in the whatever but never seem to get around to it. There is a sneaky feeling that all is not well with the Morons and some speculation when they will go bankrupt as they sink into total irrelevance.
Apple are consumer, IBM are professional/business services.
They aren't comparable.
Consumer services is trivial functionally with massive numbers of (traditionally) fickle direct users, who have no legal power at all if the service doesn't work or is terminated, while business services are the exact opposite.
Nevertheless, there are lingering concerns about the slowdown in sales, and in the amount of inventory Apple has sitting on warehouse shelves. These concerns are unlikely to worry investors, as Cook also announced Apple would spend $100bn buying back its own stock.
I don't understand this magic financial stuff, but does that mean Apple could also buy back its own unsold inventory to please investors even more?
They create software that slows down your old phone - they tell you that it will all come good again if you get let them replace the battery - as a gesture of goodwill they tell you they will only charge £25 instead of the usual £79 for a £2 battery. Then when you send it off to them they send a bill for £225 being £25 for the battery and the other £200 to replace the frame which had a barely visible dent on 1 corner. Of course, the frame had to be replaced because it may have prevented re-assembly.
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