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TL; DR iPhones are pricey. Not sure how to interpret this article. Apple has never been about market share There's a slightly more complex factor. Economics wo

by narag 8y ago

TL; DR iPhones are pricey. Not sure how to interpret this article. Apple has never been about market share There's a slightly more complex factor. Economics work differently in different countries. It's not that there are less rich persons, but that being rich is less expensive because goods in general are cheaper: housing, food, transportation, etc. If you sell an article at the same price in such a country, it's like selling an iPhone in USA for $4k. Even middle class can't afford it, or even if they can, they would choose to expend the money on something else with better value. In Spain we experience such an effect. We share the currency with our northern neighbourghs, but salaries are roughly half (guess what I'm doing next month). I own a €107 Xiaomi. I could buy an iPhone but I prefer to expend the (minimum config) 1159 - 107 € in better things: https://www.apple.com/es/shop/buy-iphone/iphone-x https://www.apple.com/es/shop/buy-iphone/iphone-x

widdershins 8y ago
Sure, but none of that changes the margins Apple wants to make per phone, and the cost of manufacturing. Therefore I guess they just accept "we won't sell many phones in country X" because they want that sweet sweet margin.
umanwizard 8y ago
This isn't really specific to iPhones. Any goods traded on the international market which cost a similar amount (in absolute dollar terms) in any country will feel more expensive in purchasing power terms to people in poorer countries. This applies to Harley Davidson motorcycles (which I would guess are pretty rare in India) just as much as it applies in iPhones.
- narag 8y ago
  It isn't specific to iPhones, why would it? Anyway any goods for which there are reasonable priced alternatives are specially sensible and are probably going to have extremely crappy sales. Also we're talking about phones, a common appliance, not a luxury item by itself, so the market share numbers will be ridiculous.

by narag 8y ago

widdershins 8y ago

Sure, but none of that changes the margins Apple wants to make per phone, and the cost of manufacturing. Therefore I guess they just accept "we won't sell many phones in country X" because they want that sweet sweet margin.

umanwizard 8y ago

This isn't really specific to iPhones. Any goods traded on the international market which cost a similar amount (in absolute dollar terms) in any country will feel more expensive in purchasing power terms to people in poorer countries. This applies to Harley Davidson motorcycles (which I would guess are pretty rare in India) just as much as it applies in iPhones.

narag 8y ago
It isn't specific to iPhones, why would it? Anyway any goods for which there are reasonable priced alternatives are specially sensible and are probably going to have extremely crappy sales. Also we're talking about phones, a common appliance, not a luxury item by itself, so the market share numbers will be ridiculous.