1. Camera quality is not really that differentiating factor to spend 1200$
2. 99.9% usage doesn’t require higher cpu
If apple continues to play premium game without game changing features, soon it will be staginated
Regarding MBP, they screwed beautiful piece in the latest iteration
I thought iPhone 7 was good enough until I tried the iPhone XS. It is far superior in every way over iPhone 7, and I am very happy I made the purchase.
The webpages load before I say blink, the screen is big, and I am enjoying reading books on it now. Other than that the camera is excellent and better everyway over my old iphone. I am not making this stuff up.
I find myself frustrated now when I am using a mobile device that doesn't respond as quickly and efficiently as my iPhone XS. The speed at which apps open/websites load, and the accompanying battery life... huge fan. My iPhone 7 would last until about 7 PM before it needed another charge, my XS lasts all day + night and I find myself using it more than I did my 7.
The question is what peoples upgrade cycles will look like. IMO an average around 4 years is probably about right for cellphones.
No one questions whether or not Apple will continue to make good premium phones, just if their market capitalization is appropriate for a company that makes only premium phones.
Now, the question becomes can you sell a premium Android phone? And based on current sales not really. Companies have flagship products, but they don’t sell that many of them because they don’t have significant advantages over far cheaper devices.
Sorry... why does that become the question? The issue at hand is whether Apple can justify a trillion dollar market cap (now down to about $750B) on its almost-entirely-premium phone sales. Whether it has meaningful competition in the premium phone sector isn't really relevant. Android can be nothing but Huawei junk and AAPL would still be overpriced.
-typed from my iPhone...
If Apple becomes BMW with several other companies eating up significant shares of the premium market then Apples market share drops. However, if Premium Android phones continue to be minor players the Apple can continue to be a dominant player.
Currently Android is actually losing market share in many countries even as Apple raises prices.
It's not about who's phones are better.
And that’s ignoring the 180 billion or so in assets on a 684.07B market cap. The only way those numbers are rational is if people are expecting sales to tank.
20 P/E is the edge of growth. Consider a utility with steady 5% returns + inflation is often an appealing option for people looking for steady returns. This always depends on what options are available.
Further the entire market is down which changes expectations. The Dow going from 26,800 to 23,300 would mean a drop from 1T down to ~869 billion.
Yep, people think Apple is slightly worse off now. But, Apple has been stuck as a relaticly high volatility value stock for a while. The expectation is lots of profit, but little real growth.
US MBW market share, is just one indicator.
2014 2.06%
2015 1.98%
2016 1.79%
2017 1.77%
TOYOTA: Car decline overshadows light-truck gain https://www.autonews.com/article/20181002/RETAIL01/181009878...
With a slightly down market:
Dominion Electric is 16.08
Proctor and gamble is 23.66
Anyway, the average tells you a lot. To simify, if the cars sold for 20k, 20k, 20k, 20k ... with one selling for X million. The that X million car eats up 16/36 = 44.5% of the value. Further, if the margin is low on 20k cars and high on X million dollar cars then it’s more profitable to just sell the one car.
You can play with these numbers, but generally the median is well below the average. So, by revenue 50+% of the market is for 40+k vechile which a premium product. At least compared to a 16k Yaris which gets you from A to B just fine.
I’m not saying the price isn’t insane, but there’s a big gap between that and a mid-range 7 series for $96k.
Sell 10 million cars for 20k with 5% margins or 2 million cars for 40k with 10% margins. Do the math the second makes you more money even selling 1/5 the cars.
Also, you might look down on a 36k car, but it’s several steps up from a 16k Yaris which would get you from A to B.
I also did not look down on a $36k car - if you read my comment I actually did quite the opposite - but my opinion isn't at all relevant, since we're talking about the majority of buyers (in this case in the US) when it comes to buying expensive "premium" products like cars and phones.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premium_pricing
Ex: ‘It does not just raise the bar, it is the bar’.
And those car manufacturers don't have a margin that as lucrative as Apple's, which is 38% in the letter.
However I do agree with the general point. The differences are getting less and less significant, and we buy new devices only when they make a meaningful difference to our lives.
1. I went from the 6S -> XS
2. 2015 MBP -> 2018 MBP. The only annoyance was the touch bar in Chrome.
3. Apple Watch Series 0 -> Apple Watch 4 LTE. I can track my surf sessions and take texts/calls in the water.
Plus, the carriers are encouraging SIM-only sales and for people to finance their own phones. So the 24-month upgrade cycle has been somewhat broken there.
I taught myself to touch type at about ~80WPM with my thumbs, and how I have this bad of habit of typing a full google search query, and just staring my phone for 90seconds until all the text magically fills in and my phone shakes with haptic feed back that should've occurred nearly 2 minutes ago.
It is such a cheap experience I had to turn haptic feedback off because its not even remotely synced to touch inputs.