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> "sales revenue is up but volumes are down for the last few years and not just because of the price. They make more money with fewer users. Except, now they are making not as much money as they hoped with even less users than they expected. They squeezed too hard and the numbers no longer add up."

these sentences (among others) contradict each other. you first seem to imply that apple understands the price elasticity (the marginal measure of price vs. quantity) of their products, and then you claim the opposite.

i also don't like the rising prices of apple products, but you've made no rational argument for why they should lower prices. you're just saying that sales volume is down, so that means they should changes things to restore that volume. it's also not obvious that services revenue needs more sales volume to be successful. none of these are obvious proxies for net income.

apple is a profit-driven company (vs. a revenue or market-share driven one), and among the most successful in history. you may not agree with their strategy, but give them a little credit/benefit of the doubt here that they might understand what's going on enough to not ignore price elasticity.

There is no contradiction. They squeezed too hard and they lost more users than they thought they could get away with. Price elasticity is working just as you'd expect. Raise prices, less users, less up-sales. Apple apparently thought differently. Hence the stock is down. There's a contradiction in their stated strategy of making more revenue through services and their price strategy which is reducing the number of users they can sell these services to.

I completely agree. For the past few years it felt like Apple had been content with raising prices until they noticed a slowdown in sales/revenue. Hopefully this recent correction will reserve this trend and help them expand in emerging markets.

>Except, now they are making not as much money as they hoped with even less users than they expected.

How do you know they have fewer users? Not selling as many phones and earning less revenue than anticipated =/= fewer users. The bulk of their issue is their users are not upgrading to newer models at the rate Apple would like, not that users are exiting the ecosystem entirely.

I disagree in part with you. I also disagree with the fatalistic tone of the article, but I think it gets more points right than wrong.

One of the directions that Apple has taken iPhones in recent years is making them more durable and in iOS 12 they have sought to ensure the continued viability of some of their older models. It is more likely today than it was when the first iPhone came out that your phone will last you up to a good 5 years or so. It’s possible that it might take you even longer if there isn’t anything specifically driving you to upgrade, such as a better enough camera that convinces you to upgrade sooner.

Apple’s strategy has served them very well for a very long time, but that doesn’t mean it might not be time for a strategic shift. What are the reasons people buy Android phones? What can Apple do to entice them to switch that they have never done, or been willing to do?

Maybe it’s time to build market-specific SKUs for India or China or even Europe or Africa?

> ...attractive premium products that people can afford.

You're totally right. But economists, policymakers and journalists have raised the alarm on stagnant wages for a decade. That's the real problem.

Every consumer products company is facing the same macroeconomic headwind.

If anyone is culpable, it's most of all investors and management-owners. They gave us the bean-counting world where people aren't paid enough to afford the products, despite constantly increasing productivity.

It seems more like it's just the inevitable result of adding a whole lot more workers to the supply side of supply and demand for workers, via advances in supply chain logistics and telecom that have made workers in China and India directly competitive with workers in the US for the same work.

Their wages and standards of living have risen fantastically over the last 30 years. But the flip side of that is depressed wages for workers in the US, who have been paid much better than most other workers, historically.

Immigration policy is also a huge factor in the supply side. Lazy enforcement on illegal immigration has put the squeeze on the lower end of the income spectrum, while some visa programs were designed specifically for the purpose of keeping higher end workers wages from increasing. Then you've got NAFTA and other trade policies that have had an impact as well.

>and get volumes up again by making sure that they have attractive premium products that people can afford.

Another thing would be to offer entry-level products that get people into the ecosystem. Like the iPhone SE - smaller and less capable, but profitable at lower prices than newer models. Basically, keep a lower step on the ladder - it makes it easier to get aboard.

Jacking up the price on the Mac Mini the same year as ditching the 5S speaks volumes about how much they care about creating ‘affordable’ anything.

Apple’s hardware is affordable because it lasts so long. The Mac Mini I bought in 2012 can run the latest OS.

I don’t know if you know this but a pc built in 2012 can also run the latest os...

Running the latest os is one thing... does it run well, though? Probably depends on the os!

Running the latest os is one thing... does it run well, though? Probably depends on the os!

a decent new PC 2012 has a quad core ivy bridge CPU, a 600 series Nvidia Geforce card and quite possible an SSD drive. What latest OS won't run well on that hardware?

huh? I am a huge Apple fan but my grandad uses a PC I built in 2012 and it's running the latest Windows OS (with updates). In the PC market that is no feat tbh. In the mobile market - yes.

Was the iPod Shuffle that got me in. $100 sucked me into the iTunes ecosystem; now my career is writing apps. Don't underestimate the value of very small entry points.

There is not a single point you make that is based in numbers. Instead, everything is about the feelings you get from the shift in the habits of some tech-savvy friends, and your own personal perception of Apple’s products. This is the opposite of a good objective analysis.

apple faces many headwinds one of which is geo-political.

https://appleinsider.com/articles/18/12/24/apple-boycott-by-...

I haven't seen much talk about it in the news, but there are boycotts of apple in China over Huawei, and apple is increasingly seen as a 'US product', which is bad because China has never liked outsiders. To make matters worse, many Americans see Apple as made in China. Apple may end up in a position where they have to choose a market.