“Fox” Tim Cook: Not dumping like Xiaomi or Vsmart, but gradually invading the Android market share

Discounts are a familiar tactic, but how to discount “true”? Ask Tim Cook.

13 years after Steve Jobs started the modern smartphone revolution, cheap iPhone is still the desire of many people. Even with cheap Android flooding the market, the number of people looking to buy an older iPhone is still enough to make the iPhone 8 or iPhone XR the top selling in the world. In Vietnam, many users also accept the risk of buying iPhone lock to a few million.

Therefore, we can be almost certain that, if the iPhone gets a big discount, Apple will surely gain a much higher market share than it is today. If the high-priced iPhone is able to reach the top (or to the top of the best-selling charts) while the high-end Android is completely absent, surely the low-cost iPhone will “soften” Android soft prices.

But Apple is now the company headed by the tech industry’s oldest fox. Apple will never devalue Xiaomi-style (or Vsmart). In September 2019, the iPhone 11 launched at $ 700, down $ 50 from the starting price of the iPhone XR when it opened in 2018. At the same time, the old XR was not as dead as the two brothers. XS and XS Max that are discounted to only 600 USD. After nearly 3 years, until the end of 2019, Apple will have a 600-frame iPhone.

In the third quarter, despite being less than a week old, the iPhone 11 still reached the top 10 bestsellers in the world. No. 1 position firmly in the hands of iPhone XR. By the fourth quarter, iP hone 11 surpassed its juniors. According to market sources, Apple could be the world’s No. 1 iPhone brand in the last quarter, surpassing rival Samsung (since neither Apple nor Samsung released official figures, there are still analysts for that Samsung surpasses Apple with negligible distance).

Regardless of whether the sales figures are accurate or not, Apple has crushed all other competitors in the most important aspect: the amount of money collected. IPhone sales in the fourth quarter of 2019 reached US $ 56 billion, higher than the total revenue of all Samsung businesses – including semiconductors, panels, sensors or TVs in the world top smartphone. . This figure is almost equal to Huawei’s total revenue in the first half of 2019 and nearly 4 times Xiaomi’s smartphone sales for the whole of 2018. As service and accessory sales are still growing steadily, the The new iPhone fever helped Apple reach $ 91 billion in revenue in the last fiscal quarter of the year.

IPhone sales in the fourth quarter of 1919 showed that with the attraction of Apple, only 50 USD also made a story.

If the initial price reduction of only $ 50 was enough to help Apple rise to the No. 1 position in the world, what would happen if the new iPhone directly confronted Samsung or Xiaomi smartphones at the capital prices that are “home ground”? of these brands like 300 or 400 USD? Certainly, iPhone sales will be even more explosive.

But again, Tim Cook is an old fox, and the old fox will never do what others consider to be obvious. With a price reduction of only $ 50, Apple rose to the top of the world and simultaneously earned up to $ 20 billion in profits in the last quarter – further price reductions would reduce the “dream” profit margin of Apple. More importantly, the shock discount also means that Apple’s “premium” image will be lost, and the iPhone will lose its own appeal to Android rivals. While even a devaluation firm like Xiaomi has experienced more than one serious decline in sales, a cunning person like Tim Cook will not lower prices until forced to do so.

More frightening, Tim Cook has two cards that no other Android company can match: services and accessories. In the fourth quarter, the service was Apple’s second-highest revenue business, only inferior to the iPhone, while the accessory segment surpassed both the Mac and iPad. In total, the revenue of these two segments amounted to more than $ 20 billion, still higher than Xiaomi’s smartphone sales for the whole year. Obviously, despite selling separate accessories or services (especially through Chinese ROMs), other Android brands can’t compete with Apple. After all, iPhone buyers still have more money than Android smartphone buyers.

This means that, if combined services and accessories into the same ecosystem as the iPhone, Apple has the potential to inflict even more pain on Android smartphones. Tim Cook can continue to lower prices for the iPhone and offset revenue / profits with Apple Music, AirPods, Apple Watch, Apple TV + v … v …

Such a scenario could frighten Android rivals. The recently released $ 300 iPads are proof that Cook will not be afraid to use price tags when needed. The only question left is, when will Tim Cook use this trick with the iPhone?

Probably not this year yet. Apple-branded smartphones are still the unrivaled king of the premium segment, and the old Apple CEO will take advantage of that position to implement his cunning strategy: reduce prices gradually to gain market share. from Android, at the same time keep your revenues and profits skyrocket with premium positioning and a powerful ecosystem!

Source : Techtalk