Although I’m not really into watches, I’d rather have a Tag Heuer than that watch (same price). I just think they are ugly looking. Why do you need a smart watch anyway?
On a side note, this entrepreneurship conference I went to last Friday had one of hosts in the front of the room. She was middle aged and dressed in a very trendy fashionable way with a red dress and from NorCal (Stanford). I thought her style was pretty good except for this one ugly thing on her wrist … an Apple Watch. It really just looked grotesque to me.
The only Apple device I use often is my iPad. Great for travel when I don’t need to lug my laptop around. Also good for watching pr0n.
Also have an old iPod which I don’t really use, and a Macbook Pro that I travel with if I need a laptop (and don’t want to bring my work one). Still really fast now that I’ve upgraded it to a solid state HD.
I have an iphone 6 and and iPad Air 2 + another iPhone 6 and iPad Air for work. Don’t see myself going to another brand any time soon.
Whilst I’ve made a lot of money from a long AAPL position I closed it last year. I’m happy to pay $500 for a phone probably once every 3-4 years but certainly not every year. I’d like to see the data for the number of people getting a new phone each year over time as I’d guess it’s gone down over the last decade. More concering is the lack of EM penetration. Combine that with the iWatch flopping and the Ipad (an tablet market in general) tanking it’s not looking good for the stock.
I’ve always been concerned that the stock was overvalued but I suppose that doesn’t really matter until everyone else notices.
Not sure about other people, but I’ve never paid full price for an iPhone. I always got a new phone every 2 years by re-upping for a 2 year contract with AT&T in exchange for a subsidized iPhone purchase. Now that AT&T is no longer offering that deal, I’m not sure I’ll update when my 2 year contract is up. I’m guessing I’m not the only person in this boat, so I wonder if this will have any meaningful impact on AAPL sales.
just a 4 yo iPad 2. i have a Classic and wife has a Nexus. we have a couple xboxes and a cheap black friday pc for work stuff at home. use sonos and spotify for music.
^ the other issue that when it comes time to renew your plan, if you want to upgrade your phone the carrier tells you you need to have a new plan (that is obviosuly more expensive than the current plan you are on). My previous plan was $55 per month and it was pretty good. We ended up dropping our home phone line and just have our cell phones. (I’m with Telus) so I was fine with this.
A few years ago they changed the regulations reducing the contracts from 3 years to 2 years. So, now you have to amortize the cost of a phone over a shorter period of time. How was this supposed to help the consumer?
Yes, the upgrade cycle might lengthen, slowing down growth, no doubt about that, but that’s for really the whole market, not just AAPL, and even in a shrinking/slowing market, AAPL can continue to own the higher end segment. As you noted, you might not replace your gadgets soon, but you won’t switch either.
I don’t think their poor penetration is that worrisome, their products are horridly expensive in developing countries. But China is still their second largest market after NA. It’s been hit this quarter to some problems in the country.
I don’t see why the Watch is a flop? The iPad has been bad for sure, but maybe that market is just saturated, or perhaps MSFT hit on the right formula with the Surface?
the iPad’s poor sales is not at all related to competition from other tablets. it is related to its incredibly long cycle. people don’t upgrade iPads. they use them until they die and then they buy another one. mine is over 4 years old. when it dies, i’ll buy another one. it’s more like a Mac/PC’s cycle in that way. another factor is the arms race to larger phones cannibalized iPads a bit but as we move back to more sensical screen sizes, iPad should come back.