Apple Sales Fall as iPhone, China Businesses Remain Sluggish | Hacker News Reader

Apple Sales Fall as iPhone, China Businesses Remain Sluggish

wsj.com

7 pointsFredPret7 comments

I'm not surprised iPhone sales were down, since the 15 was not much to write home about. You could tell from the product announcement, where they spent a substantial amount of time talking about the new non-leather cases (which bombed, incidentally).

I hope they have something up their sleeve for the 16, like on-device genAI. If they reserve this functionality for the Pro models, or if they offer better performance on Pro models, they'll be able to drive up ASP and margins. While I'd like to get another mini iPhone, I could spring for a 16 Pro if it has enough good stuff.

I have an iPhone 15 but I think my next phone will be a flip-phone or whatever the minimal thing is that can run Google Maps.

* Sales down 4.3%

* Profit down 2.2%

* iPhone sales down 10.5%

* Huawei sales in China up 70%

* Apple China sales down 19%

Apple buyback up

iPhone sales may be down in China. But the Apple stores in other parts of Asia (Singapore, etc), are clogged with Chinese tourists buying iPhones.

Current jingoistic/nationalistic sentiments being drummed by the CCP in China is taking a toll on most foreign brands, including Apple, Tesla, BMW, etc.

Truth of the matter, which Apple is finally realising, the Chinese market is not going to recover for them ever again. Hence Apple is moving aggressively in the Indian and the other markets.

As an AAPL investor, while I'm happy with the investments Apple is making on next-gen tech like AVP, I personally don't see AVP or its variants becoming a mainstream product. Apple should focus on getting a face-wear product similar to the RayBan Meta glasses, with cloud based multi-modal AI support, Siri-onboard and an attached AirPod, that I can wear throughout the day, as my personal AI assistant.

I don't need spatial 3D. Just a simple overlay/HUD that will show me a way finder, help me with reminders, put a name to a (known and in my contacts) face, language translation, and as a "personal life concierge". Pair it to my iPhone, but make sure I never have to take it out of my pocket with UI and interactions using verbal, frame touch or via eye-tracking.

The Glassholes from Google got the basic concept right, but flubbed the overall execution.

The Ray bans don't have any kind of display. They're really pretty useless.. I tried them but they're really a non product.

And they don't solve the #1 glasshole problem: a camera stuck in your face every time you talk to someone with one.

This is even less mainstream than the meta quest.

Apple should not call it a camera stuck on the iGlass. It should simply be an optical input device for the multi-modal AI system and should never be allowed for photo or video taking.

That way, folks will know that the device will not infringe privacy or allow other creep behaviours.

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