I think that technology is slowing down. Skylake to Kabby Lake was a negligible performance improvement. It's hard to get everyone excited about the new lineup when there's not a whole lot that's new and cool in the full-size computer world.
The iPhone 7 though is a big disappointment, and the fact that Apple themselves overestimated the demand is indicative of that. I think to a lot of people it looked like a decrement rather than increment, i.e. it's a 6 without the headphone jack. Camera? I don't know if I need the new one really. Faster CPU? I'm not sure it's critical for the apps I'm using. Personally, it's the first time since iPhone 3 that I don't want the new one.
Maybe it's all normal and maybe Schiller is right in that every new product will always be met with criticism. Apple's stuff is now too popular and too important to be dismissed if it's a flop. Who cares if Dell's next laptop is ugly and/or overpriced? No one cares. But Apple is a near-monopoly because of OS lock-in and millions of people's jobs (I'm guessing) literally depending on them.
It's this sense of panic that Apple is slowly building up a bubble around themselves. We don't even know whether it's the usual secrecy around R&D or they simply don't know what to do next.
The headphone port aside, it's an incremental update, with big internal technology boosts (cpu, gpu, camera setup, etc) as always (and waterproof, which is big).
What exactly would the disappointment be? And the 7 is selling more than fine, who said anything about "overestimating demand"?
"In the US, iOS grew 7 percentage points year-over-year, from 33.5% of smartphone sales to 40.5% in the three months ending October 2016. This represents the strongest rate of growth for the OS in more than two years, as well as the highest share seen since the three months ending January 2015 (42.8%). And while Android remains the dominant OS in the US, at 57.9% of smartphone sales, this latest data represents the 5th consecutive year-on-year period decline"
The iPhone enjoyed its largest gains in the UK, where sales of Apple’s iPhone lineup grew 9.1% year-over-year to 48.3%. At the same time, Kantar says Android’s share of smartphone sales slid 1.8% to 49.6%. iPhone’s share of the market also grew in France, Italy, Spain and across the EU5 region as a whole.
other source:
Overall, Slice says, revenues from iPhone sales in November and December 2016 were up 66.9% from the same period last year.
Apple[1] reduced Tim Cooks bonus for failing to meet sales goals in the last quarter - thats a pretty good measure of how c
The statistics you provide are all too vague to reach any conclusions about the iphone 7, as they are about iOS or all iphones. The CNN article specifically notes that iphone sales have seen a decline in each of the last 3 quarters.
[1]http://money.cnn.com/2017/01/06/technology/apple-tim-cook-pa...