Apple warns investors about disappointing iPhone sales

[HEXUS]

Festive season usually Apple's strongest quarter but it has cut revenue expectations.

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[cheesemp]

"the easier it is to replace a battery, the less willing people are to buy a new iPhone".

Yeah - This attitude (and not just from Apple) really winds me up. Why should I have to junk a perfectly working phone/laptop/tablet etc just because the battery is worn. I have in the past ripped open a phone to replace a battery but then you can't find official replacements (and if you do its a quarter the price of a new phone!). Then when you rebuild the back of the phone doesn't want to go back just right or the glue needs replacing. Its so damn wasteful and I don't believe for a second its that hard to engineer replaceable batteries! Built in obsolesce by battery should be illegal full stop.

[Spud1]

Well, their entire line up has a big cut out of the screen, its no surprise that their sales are not going to hit forecasts.

The notch may well be a personal thing of hatred for me, but also to a lot of people that I know who are deciding to stick with their iPhone 7 or 8 rather than "upgrade", as they don't want to lose a big chunk out of their screens, and pay £1000 for the privilege. They are not necessarily jumping to a different vendor or buying a cheaper phone - just not replacing what they have. The iPhone 7 & 8 still perform perfectly well right now too so there just isn't a need to upgrade..

[walibe]

Well, their entire line up has a big cut out of the screen, its no surprise that their sales are not going to hit forecasts.

The notch may well be a personal thing of hatred for me, but also to a lot of people that I know who are deciding to stick with their iPhone 7 or 8 rather than "upgrade", as they don't want to lose a big chunk out of their screens, and pay £1000 for the privilege. They are not necessarily jumping to a different vendor or buying a cheaper phone - just not replacing what they have. The iPhone 7 & 8 still perform perfectly well right now too so there just isn't a need to upgrade..

This is a very good point. I personally love the iPhone X but the only reason I upgraded was partly because my iPhone 6 Plus was starting to have trouble with some of the latest apps and multi tasking and partly because there were so many good offers that after nearly 4 years with the same phone I gave in.

What I find so perplexing is that companies like Microsoft and Apple during their histories are frequently under valued despite the user base, technologies and profits/revenues they generate. Instead we have companies like Facebook and google and to some extent Amazon who do not have the same profit levels and own technologies yet are valued as much if not more.

[3dcandy]

I personally know about 20 people who have jumped ship to either S9's or other flagship phones from iphone. Sick of restrictions and lack of expandable memory is most of the reasons I get told.
Next up is having to constantly charge the phone...

Last few just don't want the expense of upgrading preferring to stick on sim only deals

[3dcandy]

Well, their entire line up has a big cut out of the screen, its no surprise that their sales are not going to hit forecasts.

The notch may well be a personal thing of hatred for me, but also to a lot of people that I know who are deciding to stick with their iPhone 7 or 8 rather than "upgrade", as they don't want to lose a big chunk out of their screens, and pay £1000 for the privilege. They are not necessarily jumping to a different vendor or buying a cheaper phone - just not replacing what they have. The iPhone 7 & 8 still perform perfectly well right now too so there just isn't a need to upgrade..

This is a very good point. I personally love the iPhone X but the only reason I upgraded was partly because my iPhone 6 Plus was starting to have trouble with some of the latest apps and multi tasking and partly because there were so many good offers that after nearly 4 years with the same phone I gave in.

What I find so perplexing is that companies like Microsoft and Apple during their histories are frequently under valued despite the user base, technologies and profits/revenues they generate. Instead we have companies like Facebook and google and to some extent Amazon who do not have the same profit levels and own technologies yet are valued as much if not more.

Not so reliant on fickle customers I guess

[peterb]

A replace the battery for an iPhone was £25 - correct part (not a knock off) professionally fitted. I think it has just gone up to £35 - still not much given battery life is 2 to 3 years.

[walibe]

Tell someone not use google or Facebook - watch their world implode. Fickle defined.

[Smudger]

Well, their entire line up has a big cut out of the screen, its no surprise that their sales are not going to hit forecasts.

The notch may well be a personal thing of hatred for me, but also to a lot of people that I know who are deciding to stick with their iPhone 7 or 8 rather than "upgrade", as they don't want to lose a big chunk out of their screens, and pay £1000 for the privilege. They are not necessarily jumping to a different vendor or buying a cheaper phone - just not replacing what they have. The iPhone 7 & 8 still perform perfectly well right now too so there just isn't a need to upgrade..

Didn't the iPhones before the X have huge bezels top and bottom? So they are now getting more screen estate, not less?

[Spud1]

Didn't the iPhones before the X have huge bezels top and bottom? So they are now getting more screen estate, not less?

Not to restart the whole notch debate again, but as the notch and the screen either side of it are not usable space, you don't really gain anything at all. Maybe a few pixels at most, but certainly nothing noticeable. Compared to notchless phones with a small bezel like the S8/S9, you lose space because of the notch. If you measure the usable screen space of the S8+ vs an iPhone X for example, the S8+ has slightly more screen space.

I won't be upgrading this year either now that Samsung have caved in and put a notch in their phones too

[walibe]

Not to restart the whole notch debate again, but as the notch and the screen either side of it are not usable space, you don't really gain anything at all. Maybe a few pixels at most, but certainly nothing noticeable. Compared to notchless phones with a small bezel like the S8/S9, you lose space because of the notch. If you measure the usable screen space of the S8+ vs an iPhone X for example, the S8+ has slightly more screen space.

I won't be upgrading this year either now that Samsung have caved in and put a notch in their phones too

Another couple of years and you may see capable behind screen solutions. There are already demo models now but they aren’t perfect.

[LSG501]

Unnecessarily high prices and built in forced obsolescence is finally coming back to bite Apple.

It was only going to last so long before people started voting with their money.

The first places this will happen are in the places that have 'lower income' and a LOT of very good options for considerably less money such as China, doubt it will be long before it starts spreading to the UK and Europe either.

I'm expecting price drops with very little 'improvement' (wasn't exactly much for the last few years) to the iPhone when they get refreshed if not before.

[3dcandy]

Not to restart the whole notch debate again, but as the notch and the screen either side of it are not usable space, you don't really gain anything at all. Maybe a few pixels at most, but certainly nothing noticeable. Compared to notchless phones with a small bezel like the S8/S9, you lose space because of the notch. If you measure the usable screen space of the S8+ vs an iPhone X for example, the S8+ has slightly more screen space.

I won't be upgrading this year either now that Samsung have caved in and put a notch in their phones too

Not on them all. S10 is "likely" to have a hole punch not a notch

[LeetyMcLeet]

This news gives me a warm fuzzy feeling inside

[MrRockliffe]

Not to restart the whole notch debate again, but as the notch and the screen either side of it are not usable space, you don't really gain anything at all. Maybe a few pixels at most, but certainly nothing noticeable.

Having owned an iPhone 7 and now an XS, there's definitely a noticeable improvement in screen real estate. 2:1 videos on YouTube don't make use of the notch.

I used my fathers iPhone 7 this week while sorting a couple of GApps for him, and it was quite noticeable how much less I could see.

The notch is just like the status bar on an iPhone 8/7/6s etc, but just has less info on it, so you're still getting the extra height :-)

Not on them all. S10 is "likely" to have a hole punch not a notch

Essentially still a notch though - it's taking away pixels from a display. I'd rather have a taller phone. S8/S9 is perfect IMO (though ideally not a curved display). Also leaves room for some stereo front facing speakers

[b0redom]

Meh, I think the reason that people aren't upgrading is that there's no reason. I upgraded my iPhone 6+ to an iPhone X as I wanted a bit more internal space. It's still perfectly serviceable although the battery could probably do with replacing. That phone is about 6 years old.

I could afford to upgrade every 12 months if I want, but really there's no point. Long gone are the days when every release is a massive jump in performance, so unless there suddenly is a massive leap in functionality then people are probably going to keep what they have until it breaks. In that environment the only way to increase the sales, is to move into other geographies and/or market segments.