fingerprint reader, but nowadays a slightly sharper display or crisper camera
elicit little more than a shrug. It's a dilemma the entire industry faces as the
smartphone market matures. Just look at how Samsung's sales have
sputtered even with a steady stream of new Galaxy smartphones or how
HTC's tumbled after that company released its flagship One smartphone
with minimal physical changes.The excitement that once gripped you as hype built for the next Apple
iPhone isn't quite there anymore, but faithfyls shall brace for the new gadget on their doorsteps.
There is no better poster child for this problem than the upcoming iPhone.
Next week, Apple will unveil its next iPhone, likely to be called the iPhone
6S, and it will look exactly like last year's model. The appearance of that
phone wasn't all that different from Apple's first smartphone, introduced
eight years ago.
"What can they pull out of the iPhone bag to get people excited?" asked
Kantar Worldpanel analyst Carolina Milanesi. "That's what the big question
is."
The likely marquee feature for this year's iPhone 6S will be the Force Touch
technology used in the Apple Watch, a pressure-sensitive display that
responds to various types of touches. A new color could be in the works as
well. Some rumors say Apple may tweak the device's display and materials
and slightly alter the design to incorporate a bigger battery. None of that
seems likely to spark consumers' attention the way voice-activated digital
assistant Siri did.
Next week, other products may be the real attention-getters in what some
reports have said will be a jam-packed launch event in San Francisco.
Apple is expected to introduce new iPads (possibly including a long-awaited
12.9-inch iPad Pro) and an updated Apple TV, and it will launch its iOS 9
and Mac OS X El Capitan software, first shown in June.Our boredom doesn't mean Apple won't sell millions of phones, but it does mean consumers may think a little longer before shelling out cash for an
iPhone 6S when their old devices are "good enough."
The iPhone is by far the company's most important device. It accounts for
more than two-thirds of Apple's revenue and easily outpaces other products
in shipments and sales.
But the smartphone market overall isn't growing as it once did. Shipments
worldwide should rise only about 10 percent this year, according to IDC,
well below the 28 percent increase in 2014, with China shouldering much of
the responsibility for that slowdown.
Samsung and fellow smartphone makers including LG, HTC and Xiaomi
have felt it, and not even Apple could avoid concerns during its most
recently concluded quarter. In July, Apple reported fiscal third-quarter
earnings that were better than analysts had forecast and revenue largely in
line with expectations, but it wasn't the blowout Wall Street has gotten
used to. The company also projected weaker fiscal fourth-quarter sales
than anticipated and said it sold fewer iPhones (47.5 million) in its third
quarter than Wall Street analysts expected (49.4 million).
While the iPhone has seen notable changes over the years, it has
essentially remained a rectangular box with a round home button since the
first model arrived in 2007, and that design limits what Apple can do. It's
already boosted the overall size of the devices with the 4.7-inch iPhone 6
and 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus that arrived a year ago.
Simply put, many consumers are finding their older smartphones to be
snappy enough. Changes in the wireless market in the US are a factor too:
Carriers have essentially done away with two-year contracts, so consumers
may think a little harder about forking over $649 for an iPhone instead of
the subsidized price of $200 they paid up front before.
For the iPhone 6S, those two-year upgraders will be crucial.
"Apple has always really embraced the two-year upgrade cycle, and its
strategy has been to make sure the two-year upgrade is a compelling one,"
Jackdaw Research analyst Jan Dawson said. "Compare the 6S to the 5S,
which is the comparison most would-be buyers will be making, and it'll be a
really significant upgrade."
Apple has said many consumers still need to upgrade their phones, even
though a record of people already jumped at the chance to buy the iPhone
6. According to Kantar Worldpanel, nearly one-third of both US and urban
Chinese iPhone users -- Apple's two biggest markets -- own iPhones that
are at least two years old. If Apple manages to get everyone who hasn't
bought a new smartphone in a couple of years to upgrade, the device to be
unveiled next week could surpass the success of the iPhone 6.
And yes, the iPhone 6S should still command long lines as the Apple
faithful vie to be the first to get the new device on launch day.
But for everyone else, a new iPhone is no longer a must-have item.
No comments:
Post a Comment