Journalists suspect Apple’s problems based on Tim Cook’s response in an interview

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During a conference call on Apple's sales, the company's executive director, Tim Cook, for the first time refused to answer the question of how many people switched from Android to iOS during the reporting period. According to him, since the iPhone X began to be sold quite recently, now the company does not have enough data to answer. Previously, he always gave analysts approximate data on the number of new users.
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According to Business Insider, the thing is that Apple’s market position has been shaken. The appearance of the iPhoneX worth $ 1,000 on the market led to a 1% drop in smartphone sales.

The company's profit increased only due to the increase in the cost of the new smartphone: on average, the price of the iPhone X is at least $ 100 more than the cost of previous smartphones. That is, Apple sells less, but more expensive.

Significant profits for the company come from buying apps on the App Store and music from iTunes. These services could attract funds, even if the number of users continues to decrease. However, the absolute amount of revenue from applications and other services decreased by 0.4%. compared with the previous quarter, despite the growth in revenue of this segment compared to last year (+ 18%).

Finally, Apple products no longer compete with Android. Four years ago, the iPhone outperformed its rivals in many ways, but now Google's Pixel and Samsung's Samsung Galaxy Note can be a worthy replacement. Android-based smartphones are cheaper than iPhones, and often their novelties cause sympathy even among loyal Apple fans.

According to a study by Kantar, in 6 out of 10 regions, Android owns 70% of the smartphone market:

This is the main danger for Apple: the company asks too much for a product that objectively cannot be any better than its cheaper competitors. Perhaps that is why Tim Cook refused to discuss the number of users who switched to iOS from Android at a press conference.

According to ITI Capital analysts, Apple does face serious pressure from competitors, but it’s premature to say that the company has serious problems:

The decline in the share of sales of iOS smartphones in the US, a key market for Apple, is undoubtedly a warning signal. It should be noted the company's progress in the Chinese market: the share of sales of iOS smartphones in the last reporting quarter increased by 10 percentage points compared to the comparable period a year earlier, and the share of Apple's revenue in China remained at 20%. According to TrendForce, Apple’s share of the global smartphone market will rise slightly in 2018, to 15.7% compared to 15.2% in 2017, while Samsung, the market leader, will lose 1.6 percentage points. Nevertheless, the competition in the smartphone market remains tense, and Apple will have to fight for the attention and wallets of customers, including Chinese manufacturers HUAWEI and Xiaomi, which have significantly strengthened their positions in the market recently.

- Anna Lakeychuk , Head of Research , ITI Capital

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Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/349292/

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Journalists suspect Apple’s problems based on Tim Cook’s response in an interview

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