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Apple Q2 Earnings: iPhone Sales Fall Flat (reuters.com) 107

Posted by BeauHD from the beginning-of-the-end dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Apple Inc reported a surprise fall in iPhone sales for the second quarter on Tuesday, indicating that customers had held back purchases in anticipation of the 10th-anniversary edition launch of the company's most important product. Apple sold 50.76 million iPhones in its fiscal second quarter ended April 1, down from 51.19 million a year earlier. Analysts on average had estimated iPhone sales of 52.27 million, according to financial data and analytics firm FactSet. However, revenue from the smartphones rose 1.2 percent in the quarter. Expectations are building ahead of Apple's 10th-anniversary iPhone range this fall, with investors hoping that the launch would help bolster sales.
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Apple Q2 Earnings: iPhone Sales Fall Flat More

Apple Q2 Earnings: iPhone Sales Fall Flat

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  • Our customers are just waiting for the tenth anniversary edition. Yep. Nothing to see here.

    • Re: (Score:1, Flamebait)

      by lucm ( 889690 )

      That's it. Fanbois have now jumped the shark and joined the likes of Baghdad Bob.

      Apple Inc reported a surprise fall in iPhone sales for the second quarter on Tuesday, indicating that customers had held back purchases in anticipation of the 10th-anniversary edition launch of the company's most important product.

      Whoever submitted that, and whoever approved it for publishing, shame on you. This used to be a serious website.

  • hold off or went elsewhere? (Score:3)

    by gravewax ( 4772409 ) on Tuesday May 02, 2017 @06:07PM (#54344211)
    did customers really hold off or did they go elsewhere? I know quite a few apple phone fans and none of them ever hold off, I also know quite a few disillusioned former fans.

    • I know quite a lot of Apple fanboys and none of them ever said they were holding off for the 10th anniversary iPhone. Nothing special is expected, it will be better than the 9th, worse than the 11th.

      Apple probably lost many sales to Android manufacturers, however.

    • Re:hold off or went elsewhere? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by dknj ( 441802 ) on Tuesday May 02, 2017 @06:34PM (#54344411) Journal

      did customers really hold off or did they go elsewhere?

      D I G I T A L L O C K I N

      You bought all your videos on iTunes store, all of your music is iTunes in the cloud, and all of your photos and videos are also in iCloud. I would say half of those buying iPhones don't think there is a way out and can't fathom losing the thousands of $ they put into apple digital products

      • Apart from apps, most people only really buy from the iTunes store which surprise surprise is actually available across platforms. photos and videos tend to be relatively small amount stored in icloud as apple have onerous size restrictions unless you pay them a fortune. So really it is only the apps that is likely to stop most and most of them are available in both android and apple.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Karlt1 ( 231423 )

        If you bought any music since 2009, it's DRM free. You can install Google Photos and sync all of your photos and videos to Google without the 5gb restriction you have for iCloud unless you pay for more and very few people actually buy video from Apple instead of just renting it.

        And how many people actually pay for apps except for consumables in games and subscription services that they could cancel and re subscribe through the vendors site?

      • This is a downvote fix... sorry.

    • Re:hold off or went elsewhere? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Anubis IV ( 1279820 ) on Tuesday May 02, 2017 @06:48PM (#54344511)

      I know quite a few apple phone fans and none of them ever hold off

      This is an anecdote, to be sure, but my parents are holding off until later this year, even though they haven't heard any rumors and even though their iPhone 5s has since been surpassed by the 6, 6s, and 7 generations.

      The reason they're holding off is because their existing iPhones are simply good enough. The iPhone 5s still runs the latest OS, gets the latest patches, and runs apps nearly as well today as it did when it was first introduced in 2013. It's held up remarkably well. The fact that it was also the first 64-bit smartphone has helped to keep it on the good side of any compatibility cutoffs as well, as apps have dropped support for older architectures and devices.

      Really though, none of this is surprising. Though my dad was in a line before dawn to get the iPhone 3G on launch day, he held off two generations before upgrading to the iPhone 4, three generations to get the iPhone 5s, and now holding off four generations for whatever comes out later this year.

      All of which is to say, it has nothing to do with whatever's next, and everything to do with what they already have: something that's good enough.

      • I still find it really funny when Apple fans repeatedly bring up the 64-bit processor ('the first introduced in a smartphone'), yet even the latest and most expensive iPhone still has only 3 GB of RAM.

        Boasting an accomplishment that has not been realized yet seems a bit silly in my opinion. I mean if Apple produced a series of smartphones with 4 GB+ to take advantage of the 64-bit register then I could understand the gloating but that has not happened yet.

        • You're reading WAY more into my comment than is actually there. If you think I was boasting when I provided an example of how my parent's phones have been able to remain relevant despite newer models coming out, I'd suggest it says more about you than me. I wasn't making a jab at whatever your mobile platform of choice is.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

          I still find it really funny when Apple fans repeatedly bring up the 64-bit processor ('the first introduced in a smartphone'), yet even the latest and most expensive iPhone still has only 3 GB of RAM.

          Boasting an accomplishment that has not been realized yet seems a bit silly in my opinion. I mean if Apple produced a series of smartphones with 4 GB+ to take advantage of the 64-bit register then I could understand the gloating but that has not happened yet.

          64-bit is not just about RAM. If it was, Intel would

          • Intel sells 64-bit CPUs for limited RAM systems for continuity of code, not because the 64-bit would run the code better.

            As far as the 100% faster bit, you're absolutely full of it. The most seen from the change was 28% in benchmark comparisons and most of that was attributed simply from improvements generation-over-generation in the silicon and not the bit rate change. Here's a comparison between the architectures when used by the Raspberry Pi tick:

            http://www.cnx-software.com/20... [cnx-software.com]

            Provide a citat
        • 64-bit on iOS makes a big difference with Objective-C, because you can now embed the reference count in the high bits of the class pointer and can also embed a lot more small objects directly in object pointers. AArch64 is designed from scratch as a compiler target, whereas AArch32 has a lot of legacy that was intended for assembly programmers, some of which is hard to use from a compiler and some of which is really hard to implement efficiently on modern pipelines (say 'store multiple' or 'muldiple-wdith
          • You're spewing psuedo-tech speech for tagged pointers, which have been around in other operating systems and architectures for nearly thirty years. It's not novel and it certainly isn't that big a break through for a smart phone. Typical trumped up Apple developer non-sense.
            • Of course it's not new - the Lisp machines were doing it decades ago, and I never implied that it was. I don't like to use the term tagged pointer in this regard, because that's a massively overloaded term and originated with the kind of tagged pointers that exist on the architecture that I work on [chericpu.org].

              However, with 64 bits, you have a lot more space to use for values and you have a lot more bits to use for tags. The top 16 bits are unused for address translation, and so can be used to store other informatio

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by Anonymous Coward

          I still find it really funny when Apple fans repeatedly bring up the 64-bit processor ('the first introduced in a smartphone'), yet even the latest and most expensive iPhone still has only 3 GB of RAM. Boasting an accomplishment that has not been realized yet seems a bit silly in my opinion. I mean if Apple produced a series of smartphones with 4 GB+ to take advantage of the 64-bit register then I could understand the gloating but that has not happened yet.

          Yeah, isn't it funny how the Fandroids always bring up the small memory of iPhones, when real life tests show how crappy memory management on Android phones is. Just look at round 2 of this speed test https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OX4JucpvbJM [youtube.com]

          As for what advantages Apple gets from 64 bits, here's a >3.5 year old article exactly explaining it that even a Fandroid can understand. https://www.mikeash.com/pyblog/friday-qa-2013-09-27-arm64-and-you.html [mikeash.com]

          • A video made by a Pro-Apple Youtube channel. Yes, quite definitive, note heavy sarcasm.

            As far as the 64-bit explanation page you linked, it told me much of what I already knew and supports my position. To quote from your link:

            "The simple fact of moving to 64-bit does little. It makes for slightly faster computations in some cases, somewhat higher memory usage for most programs, and makes certain programming techniques more viable. Overall, it's not hugely significant."

            Did you even read it? Doubt it

    • did customers really hold off or did they go elsewhere?

      Elsewhere. Apple now counts for "negative cool". Apple is everything generation Z hates about their cringey millenial parents.

    • Maybe it's due to the stupid need for a dongle to listen to music? I have an iPhone 7 and the need to have a dongle is nuts. I don't use Apple's earbuds since my ears aren't compatible. Maybe 2016 was the year of the dongle? Hopefully Apple comes to their senses in 2017?

      • You know any Bluetooth audio device works with an iphone 7, right?

        • I am fully aware, though beyond the need to charge yet another device there is typically at least an $80 price difference between the wired and wireless equivalents.

          • Okay, but that's moving the goalposts. A dongle is not required to listen to music. Bluetooth may not be an adequate solution for you for several legitimate reasons (audio quality, battery, etc.) but saying that the phone requires a dongle to listen to music is pure FUD, and I think you know that.

  • What is this trash? (Score:3, Informative)

    by Jack9 ( 11421 ) on Tuesday May 02, 2017 @06:10PM (#54344229)

    Marketing spin is not news. Stop parroting Reuters.

    • Marketing spin is not news.

      What is not news about the richest company in the known universe missing big?

      • Marketing spin is not news.

        What is not news about the richest company in the known universe missing big?

        Missing big? When they 'only' sold 50.76m instead of the 52.27m predicted? Please excuse me while I go find the worlds smallest violin.

        • Missing big? When they 'only' sold 50.76m instead of the 52.27m predicted?

          Down 2% instantly, for good reason. If you bet on AAPL yesterday, today you are broke. Suggest you learn about finance :)

          • Missing big? When they 'only' sold 50.76m instead of the 52.27m predicted?

            Down 2% instantly, for good reason. If you bet on AAPL yesterday, today you are broke. Suggest you learn about finance :)

            Maybe you should learn about gambling.

  • Only jagoff financial "analysts" can spin this as bad news. That's a massive number of new devices sold, and that's WITH people holding back for the 10th anniversary iPhone. If they don't raise Jesus from the dead each quarter they're panned. What horseshit.

    • Are you implying that the stock market is something other than legalized gambling requiring ever expanding growth (and nothing more?)

    • Who is holding back for the 10th Anniversary phone?

      What value is there in waiting?

      I mean, we need to see some real reasons cited as to why these mythical customers are 'waiting.'

    • Trying to get that number to sink deep down in, I really am, but it's just not happening. Citizens of the world buy more than a billion Android phones a year now. By that yardstick, it is hard to get all slack jawed about Apple's numbers.

      • >Trying to get that number to sink deep down in, I really am, but it's just not happening.

        Apple gets just about all the industry's profits... http://www.reuters.com/article... [reuters.com]

        > For the second quarter, the company's net income rose to $11.03 billion, or
        > $2.10 per share, compared with $10.52 billion, or $1.90 per share, a year earlier.

        And, oh yeah, Apple now has a quarter of a ***TRILLION*** dollars of cash.

        Try to get that to sink in.

        > Citizens of the world buy more than a billion Android phones

        • This is a nerd site. Not a shareholder or financial site.

          If this wasn't a nerd site, we would probably all love Larry Ellisison and Oracle. He is fabulously rich and got that way selling software. Instead nerds consider Ellison to be a blight on the technology industry.

          There isn't the same consensus regarding Apple at this time, but citing 'huge amounts of money made' isn't going to impress Slashdotters. That isn't really the measure of success in nerd culture.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Karlt1 ( 231423 )

            Yes because Slashdot users are the market makers....

            https://slashdot.org/story/01/... [slashdot.org]

          • ...He is fabulously rich and got that way selling software. Instead nerds consider Ellison to be a blight on the technology industry. There isn't the blah blah, and blah and blah...

            Spoken well and truly as someone who has never had to wallow in crappy Oracle applications and buttfucking Oracle license fees or be the target of Oracle's legal trolling.

        • Apple gets just about all the industry's profits...

          That tired old lie is getting tired and old. It depends on a credulous listener overlooking the fact that there are thousands of companies involved in the Android ecosystem, from lithography equipment vendors to front line salespeople, all making money on Android. The sum total dwarves Apple's income by a factor of, oh, roughly 5 and growing. Which is the rapidly growing total amount spent on Android phones compared to the shrinking total spent on Apple phones.

          Tired old lies. Tired old liars. The more down

          • Apple gets just about all the industry's profits...

            That tired old lie is getting tired and old. It depends on a credulous listener overlooking the fact that there are thousands of companies involved in the Android ecosystem, from lithography equipment vendors to front line salespeople, all making money on Android. The sum total dwarves Apple's income by a factor of, oh, roughly 5 and growing. Which is the rapidly growing total amount spent on Android phones compared to the shrinking total spent on Apple phones.

            Tired old lies. Tired old liars. The more down Apple goes, the more up will go the lying. Courage, yeah, that's what it takes, it's courage. Not cynicism at all, no, it's courage.

            There we have it: basically all the modern Apple cultist can manage is courage to downmod. Sucks to be you.

        • So apple customers are suckers who got taken by very effective marketing. For all viral marketing, my wife just replaced her 6c with a Samsung. And, magically, the Samsung phone just works. She installed the half dozen apps she wants, and the 10 year old did something to make the keyboard a swipe one, and yesterday, in about 4 hours, it became better than the iPhone it replaced. Oh, and the battery lasts longer and I saved $200.

  • Meh. (Score:3)

    by Frosty Piss ( 770223 ) * on Tuesday May 02, 2017 @06:47PM (#54344505)

    My iPhone 5S works fine, does what I want, serves its purpose. The only thing I want is more realestate, which will maybe drive me to an iPhone 6-something when I feel the price point is right (soon). I like my iPhone, so I will not be getting an Android. But I'm not going to spend a fortune on The Latest and Greatest a long as what I have works. It's a phone, not the center of my world, so I'm fine both sticking with Apple and being a few years behind the bleeding edge.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by lazarus ( 2879 )

      Suggestion: Go with 6+ not 7+. I've had both and preferred the 6+. Battery life seemed to last almost forever. Disappointing battery life in the 7+ I think because they've ratcheted up the speed (which seems mostly unnecessary for regular use). Even turning all the junk off doesn't seem to help.

      The 6+ is an awesome phone.

  • But since they face no consequences, they have no incentive to improve.

    • since they face no consequences

      They face no consequences unless they post copy (write something). True? Untrue? Don't matter. Tomorrow's another day. Business journalism. Pays bills.

      In other news, Apple has $250 Billion [arstechnica.com] sitting around in cash, in spite of spending on a completely insane spaceship headquarters [macrumors.com] and still not offering a decent tower workstation [arstechnica.com]. Upcoming iPhone 8 rumored to be cool [macrumors.com].

      Whatever. Probably fit the entire Pentagon inside the courtyard of that spaceship. But if they would just take an 8-figure round-off error o

      • The people who pay the most attention to the fact that Apple has $250B laying around in cash refer to Apple as 'a gadget maker.'

        They don't care about the Mac. Almost nobody who is an Apple customer cares about the Mac anymore. Their gadget division has dwarfed their computer division.

  • I have an iPhone 6 and it still runs perfectly, battery life still good, runs latest version of iOS etc. I am not going to replace it unless it breaks or becomes unusable - it was an expensive phone when new. There must be huge numbers of people in a similar position. It is a pretty small group of people that need or want the absolute latest and greatest.

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