[Closed] iPhone sales slowdown - predictable?

There was an interesting thing in the new yesterday, the total revenue Google has made from Android [b]since day 1[/b] is less than Apple's revenue in a single quarter from iPhone.

http://www.theverge.com/2016/1/21/10810834/android-generated-31-billion-revenue-google-oracle

Footflaps,does that mean apple are right royally ****ing every one of their customers over?

You do know you don't have to buy their stuff? If you don't like it, just buy something else.

Absolutely and I may well do. I just find it a shame that before I used to love their products and was always more than satisfied and now it's a case of which option is the least unattractive.

Footfalls,does that mean apple are right royally **** every one of their customers over?

All depends on whether you're happy with what you bought. I have loads of Apple products and it doesn't bother me. I think they're still worth the money - in that they are better quality than anything else out there, last ages and generally work very well.

I wonder how many boardrooms are full of people wishing they had the 'problem' of only having made 13 billion quid in the last twelve months.

The present capitalist system of endless ever-incerasing growth is insane, and just completely unsustainable. How many times does it have to prove it before the economists actually address the reality, as opposed to the ideology and dogma

Next crash, then recession anyone?

As a market leader I expect their product to work perfectly all the time.
I don't expect to be a guinea pig for their updates. If they have to do 2 updates in a week someone is not doing their job properly.

I don't expect to be a guinea pig for their updates. If they have to do 2 updates in a week someone is not doing their job properly.

Slow down in China doesn't help them and as other have said we are reaching saturation points in key markets.

On top of this the 6S was a small change over the 6. I changed as I needed a new phone giving up a work device, and it was notably faster and better - but to the outside world it was identical, therefore hard to justify a change.

It is a natural evolution as the game changing phone market has not really moved on in the last few years - we are seeing tweaks but nothing amazing.

Personally I've tried android devices for various lengths of time, and whilst they have some great feature they don't hang together well. And as a long time mac user they work with all my work and home devices. The pricing is not bad either when compared to a comparative device running Android, a top end handset costs a lot. BUT that does not mean they are better, just better FOR ME.

The device change cycles are slow compared to Android - Apple change devices once a year, maybe adding in a cheaper phone in between that. Android manufacturers are on the same cycle but there are many many more of them, each month there is a new android phone - this helps keep a smoother upgrade cycle compared to iPhone.

I would expect the global iPhone market to shrink unless the 7 is amazing, and the overall high profit market along with tablets to decrease. Lower end phones will continue to expand their market, and in this apple can't and don't want to compete.

Android has developed profits of 22 billion USD for google, which is huge, but that is in it's lifetime. In that lifetime Google have paid Apple a $1bil just to be the default search engine. Google paid a 20th of lifetime profit to their key rival, in order that Apple do something most users would automatically do...

I think Apple have enough reserves to ride the storm, I only hope they use their cash reserves to really evolve automation tools for personal and corporate market, if they can really get robotics (software robotics) working to add value to mobile devices the applications are infinite. Google also has the same opportunity, but less cash reserves for pet projects.

2 different markets. 7.2% in os terms is bugger all, give the same to Linux and that gives you still 85% on Windows. Mobile is the volume for them so a dent in that isn't good.

That figure was hardwares sales and not installed user base. It was going off topic but it was a direct answer to the point raised previously about desktop/laptop sales.

My response to the original question hasn't really altered from page one. Yes it would have been expected at some point, it's due to the maturing market for smartphones which will cease to be an area of growth, probably dip a little bit then steady out into flatter year on year sales figures just like all other consumer electronics products that have come before.

the total revenue Google has made from Android since day 1 is less than Apple's revenue in a single quarter from iPhone

Google's development/acquisition of Android was a defensive move, not one to generate massive profits.

Google could see the way the internet was going to move towards mobile and at the time towards 1 company (Nokia as well but they were so slow and wedded to Symbian) who could lock them out of the only major source of revenue, advertising, as they're doing now.

It should also be noted that we may not be buying Smartphones in the future, Apple are effectively leasing phones in the US, for $30 to $50 per month you get an iPhone with a yearly update.

It's worth noting that this well publicised 'slow down' isn't a reduction in sales. They sold 74.8 million iPhones first quarter, the same time the year before they sold 74.5 million - so they sold 300k more iPhones than the year before - it's just the rate in which sales are growing has slowed down.

It's a pretty incredible mesasure of sucess if people get all excited because you're sales figures didn't increase as much as they expected.

As a market leader I expect their product to work perfectly all the time.

The real world would like a word....

Google's development/acquisition of Android was a defensive move, not one to generate massive profits.

Nonsense.

Google make their money from search and could see that as the internet goes mobile they needed to make sure they grabbed a big chunk of mobile search traffic, hence Android. They give it away free hoping to make money on search and apps.

As a market leader I expect their product to work perfectly all the time.
The real world would like a word....

My fridge has worked perfectly for years.
Hotpoint don't feel the need to fiddle with its settings every month and make it worse.
If you are not a computer enthusiast you don't want to spend hours looking up how to put it right when it worked perfectly well pre update.

Bit of a mean comparison. A fridge is always just a fridge, it leaves the factory able to do one thing and stays doing that thing until eventually something breaks, if I kept my phone in the factory condition just using the preinstalled apps and never expecting them to be improved and didn't add new apps produced by a range of developers with varying skill levels then i would expect it to work well for a long time without updates too.

If someone wants a simple single use phone that just works then plenty of those are available for not very much money. But if you want adopt the emerging technological marvel of a small computer that sits in your pocket able to to a multitude of tasks then I don't think it's unreasonable to expect small things to occasionally go a bit wrong. Ten years ago these devices didn't even exist in any meaningful form.

In the last week my mac book no longer recognises my ipad. My ipad won't load my email account even though the same settings are used on 2 more I pads and an iPhone. (The android gadgets took the email account no problrm)
Now this iPhone safari problem.
Apple must do better. They have the resources and the brains.

Google's development/acquisition of Android was a defensive move, not one to generate massive profits.

Nonsense.

Google make their money from search and could see that as the internet goes mobile they needed to make sure they grabbed a big chunk of mobile search traffic, hence Android. They give it away free hoping to make money on search and apps.

You didn't read the second paragraph did you.

Google could see the way the internet was going to move towards mobile and at the time towards 1 company (Nokia as well but they were so slow and wedded to Symbian) who could lock them out of the only major source of revenue, advertising, as they're doing now.

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The Pope and Tim Cook. In the week that growth stalled, strange timing? Conspiracy? Cabal? Lizard people? Trying to get in touch with Steve to ask what to make next now the arse has fallen out of the phone market?

Makes you think.

Makes you think.

Yep, mainly why would either of them want to meet the other. WTF do they have in common?

Yep, mainly why would either of them want to meet the other. WTF do they have in common?

Presumably both heads of organisations that have millions of people hanging on their word with blind faith ready to defend them to non believers, combined with a reluctance to pay their fair share of tax? So comparing notes and the usual.

I might go and buy a 6S.

Anybody reccomend the 64 or 128gb?

I might go and buy a 6S.

Anybody reccomend the 64 or 128gb?

128 if you can afford it and you want to keep music on it or if you use lots of attachments in mail. 64 if it is just apps you use and only personal email

Thanks mynamesnotbob my 6 64gb has 25gb free after I deleted apps and games which makes it a bit boring.

I have not put a 1% of my music on and plan to snap pics/vids more often.

Selling my mint 6 iphone to my old man cheaply for £200 and buying a 6S for the 4K.

A few more months and it will be worth that anyway with mobile recyclers.

Have been offered £350-400 private sale and £295 from a recycler which usually knock a few quid off when they have your phone no matter the condition.

TBH early smartphones felt like sorcery, but it took a while for them to really realise the potential. New iterations add less as time passes making them less desirable It's not just forseeable, it's genuinely inevitable- market sector matures.

Would be nice to see cheaper prices though!

The main problem is that now the smartphones actually work and it's the network that's the problem.

The improvements with each iteration I doubt people really want/need other than having the next gadget.

I had a 4, it worked great, never ever upgraded the iOS so after 3 years it was a bit tired and no longer was able to use many apps due to this.

Rather than shell out on a new one I got a £200 lumia. It did pretty much everything the iPhone did, had 64mb memory and running outlook email was virtually instantaneous like blackberry... It only lasted 18-20 months but replaced with a cheap 640 as (other than the camera) is more than exceeds what I need it for.

I'd not even contemplate another iPhone at >£300 as a consequence.

Yeah, and it's a flatlining of growth, not a reduction.

Bit of a mean comparison. A fridge is always just a fridge, it leaves the factory able to do one thing and stays doing that thing until eventually something breaks, if I kept my phone in the factory condition just using the preinstalled apps and never expecting them to be improved and didn't add new apps produced by a range of developers with varying skill levels then i would expect it to work well for a long time without updates too.

in terms of testing and avoiding bugs it's probably one of the easiest jobs going.

As is constantly biting on Apple. We get it, you're an Android man.

I've had iPhones on and off from the 3G, 4S and now 5C. I've also had an android phone and recently experimented with another £90 android job.

I have a 5 year old MacBook Pro and iPad mini.

My current iPhone hopefully has a year left which will keep me contract free (which I will continue to do thru Giffgaff) but my MacBook is struggling and my iPad is dying.

I'm pretty convinced they are 'lifed' by Apple and the premium isn't justified. Android isn't a slick and sadly software I use is Mac only but I would expect to get an iPod touch and android phone next. I couldn't however go to Windows as I find it a dreadful experience.

Sadly since the demise of Nokia and Palm there is very little choice in the phone market. It's all a rip off regardless of which way you turn!!

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Saw [url= http://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2016/01/samsung-doesnt-seem-too-confident-about-future-smartphone-sales/ ]this[/url] just now reporting on how Samsung (the key player in android phones) is also not confident in future growth.

Like a few people have mentioned earlier in the thread the slowdown in growth isn't just an apple thing it's a smartphone thing.

Yes Apple will need to accommodate a slowdown in a very profitable part of their business but i don't think they'll be any worse off than any other manufacturer of smartphones.

I've not read all that ^ so apologies if this has already been mentioned, but I read something interesting the other day about divergence making a comeback. For the past few years we've seen a rapid pace of convergence where technologies are converging into one device i.e. the smartphone.

Not many years back Apple were promoting Macs as the hub of your digital world, with MP3 players, DVD players, digital cameras and PDAs all connecting to that hub. All those gadgets became redundant for many people when they got smart phones and tablets. The tech industry is now beginning a divergent trend and an example of this is the comeback of vinyl. Brands like Sony are dusting off record pressing equipment and Technics recently showcased their venerable SL1200 deck at the 2016 Consumer Electronics Show. apparently vinyl sales in the US are now worth more than streaming, although I have no idea of the data behind this because it sounds a little suspect.

Anyhow, the point is what someone on page 1 mentioned i.e. the market has matured. We're looking for our tech fix elsewhere and smartphones no longer give us that satisfying experience that new tech can give; they are just another tool now. I for one am having a hoot rediscovering my vinyl collection and listen to records more than streaming in 2016.