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I keep wondering when Apple will bite the bullet and make a phone for the emerging market. The smartphone market is getting more and more mature and if Apple wa

I keep wondering when Apple will bite the bullet and make a phone for the emerging market. The smartphone market is getting more and more mature and if Apple want's to keep sales up I think segmentation will be key. I would not be surprised if there is a philosophical battle going on in Apple right now about whether or not to make a phone for India & Africa, but the market is there.

cycrutchfield 9y ago
Why would they bother making a device with presumably low margins? That doesn’t seem like their MO.
- 40acres 9y ago
  Apple is squeezing as much as they can get out of their existing user base. Look at home pod, the watch, and apple music -- all great services that basically need an iPhone to work. I could see them adding more services to compliment the iPhone but I'm not sure how much more they can get from their existing users. Android dominates by market share and eventually I can see Apple trying to shorten the gap.. I guess it really depends on how many more services they can provide around the iPhone.
  - seanmcdirmid 9y ago
    Apple has around 80% of the profits in the smart phone industry already. iPhone doesn't drive service monetization, rather services drive iPhone monetization, so unlike Google, Apple can't win with cheaper phones.
sf_rob 9y ago
The budget market is generally a race to the bottom, and I don't see Apple interested in such a market. I know the counter will be that Apple can combine quality with fairly low price, but I think that's quite a high risk proposition.
- redditmigrant 9y ago
  I think the one good reason to make a phone for the budget market is app developer mind share. While developers obviously cant avoid building for iOS, the more data you see of overall users/your users coming from Android, you implicitly start building for Android first and then your iOS app "catching up". If you are a resource constrained company in India, in China, I imagine you build for Android first and then iOS. This lost mindshare would be problematic in the long term.
seanmcdirmid 9y ago
> I keep wondering when Apple will bite the bullet and make a phone for the emerging market. If you consider China an emerging market, Apple is doing pretty good there (3rd or 4th largest market, they were number 4 in smartphone sales for Q42017). In fact, the iPhone X sells better there than anywhere else because of face factors for rich Chinese consumers. iPhones also sell well to India's middle class in spite of not being able to have a retail presence. Emerging markets are hardly homogenous, they have plenty of consumers with money willing to buy something high end. By going low end, Apple could actually damage their cachet with those consumers.
deleted 9y ago
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criddell 9y ago
Do you also wonder when Maserati will make a car for the emerging market? Should they?
- lttlrck 9y ago
  Now the Ghibli is essentially a Chrysler 300 I wouldn’t put it past Fiat to try.
  - criddell 9y ago
    The Ghibli is still a $70,000 car.
reaperducer 9y ago
Apple already makes iPhones in India for India. There are some indications that it's not going well. https://www.indiatoday.in/technology/news/story/apple-iphone-se-not-selling-well-in-india-manufacturing-partner-in-bengaluru-in-trouble-1042860-2017-09-12 https://www.indiatoday.in/technology/news/story/apple-iphone...

cycrutchfield 9y ago

Why would they bother making a device with presumably low margins? That doesn’t seem like their MO.

40acres 9y ago
Apple is squeezing as much as they can get out of their existing user base. Look at home pod, the watch, and apple music -- all great services that basically need an iPhone to work. I could see them adding more services to compliment the iPhone but I'm not sure how much more they can get from their existing users. Android dominates by market share and eventually I can see Apple trying to shorten the gap.. I guess it really depends on how many more services they can provide around the iPhone.
- seanmcdirmid 9y ago
  Apple has around 80% of the profits in the smart phone industry already. iPhone doesn't drive service monetization, rather services drive iPhone monetization, so unlike Google, Apple can't win with cheaper phones.

sf_rob 9y ago

The budget market is generally a race to the bottom, and I don't see Apple interested in such a market. I know the counter will be that Apple can combine quality with fairly low price, but I think that's quite a high risk proposition.

redditmigrant 9y ago
I think the one good reason to make a phone for the budget market is app developer mind share. While developers obviously cant avoid building for iOS, the more data you see of overall users/your users coming from Android, you implicitly start building for Android first and then your iOS app "catching up". If you are a resource constrained company in India, in China, I imagine you build for Android first and then iOS. This lost mindshare would be problematic in the long term.

seanmcdirmid 9y ago

> I keep wondering when Apple will bite the bullet and make a phone for the emerging market. If you consider China an emerging market, Apple is doing pretty good there (3rd or 4th largest market, they were number 4 in smartphone sales for Q42017). In fact, the iPhone X sells better there than anywhere else because of face factors for rich Chinese consumers. iPhones also sell well to India's middle class in spite of not being able to have a retail presence. Emerging markets are hardly homogenous, they have plenty of consumers with money willing to buy something high end. By going low end, Apple could actually damage their cachet with those consumers.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

criddell 9y ago

Do you also wonder when Maserati will make a car for the emerging market? Should they?

lttlrck 9y ago
Now the Ghibli is essentially a Chrysler 300 I wouldn’t put it past Fiat to try.
- criddell 9y ago
  The Ghibli is still a $70,000 car.

reaperducer 9y ago

Apple already makes iPhones in India for India. There are some indications that it's not going well. https://www.indiatoday.in/technology/news/story/apple-iphone-se-not-selling-well-in-india-manufacturing-partner-in-bengaluru-in-trouble-1042860-2017-09-12 https://www.indiatoday.in/technology/news/story/apple-iphone...