Foreign media View: ipad and iphone prices must be lowered!

Henry Brockett Henry Blodget, chief editor of the Business Insider, the Sohu it message, said the ipad simply couldn't make Apple an "ipad company." Apple's focus on immediate interests is to cede the mobile market to Android, and Apple's position in the mobile market is bound to weaken in the long run. Premium strategy The new ipad is about to be released, but it's not in time. Some supporters believe that ipad sales will continue to grow exponentially, and that it may eventually overtake iphone sales, making Apple an "ipad company". In fact, this theory simply does not stand on its feet. Although the cheaper ipad Mini was released last year, Apple's ipad sales growth has slowed. In the 2 quarter of this year, ipad sales fell 14% per cent year-on-year, only 15 million units. Even without the inventory problem, ipad sales are still down 3% year-on-year. More notably, the size of the tablet market is expected to grow by about 50% this year. As a brand new product category, many people believe that the ipad will drive Apple's growth in the next few years. Of course, such comparisons may not be scientific. ipad sales climbed sharply in the quarter of last year, when the retina-screen ipad was officially released in the 2 quarter. This has certainly elevated the contrast standard for the 2 quarter this year. But that is not the main reason for the decline in ipad sales. The main reason for the decline in ipad sales is that more and more competitors are selling high quality products at low prices, while Apple is still selling the ipad at a higher price. In short, the ipad's price is too expensive. This "premium" strategy runs counter to the strategy Apple used to use for the iphone and earlier versions of the ipad. The strategy also left Apple in the PC era. At that time, the price of Apple Mac was also very expensive. You can't have both the ipad Mini and the ipad still the best of their kind, and they're the most expensive. To maintain profitability, Apple is still selling ipad products at relatively high prices. Meanwhile, Amazon, Google and other tablet makers are selling flat plates at low prices, as their profits come from applications and content sales, not from equipment sales. Apple has said the company aims to sell "the best" products, rather than "the most sold" products, so the pricing strategy is consistent with its purpose. But Apple is in trouble when it tries to keep the market dominance of iOS. In the mobile OS market, owning market share is the key. While maintaining high prices and higher margins, Apple has lost sales of products that would have allowed it to capture more market share. While Apple has a higher profit margin, Apple is likely to shrink the long-term value of iOS. If Apple tries to get iOS to dominate the global mobile-system market, Apple may have lowered its ipad and iphone prices. The move could affect profits in the short term, but Apple's future market position will be consolidated. If Apple were to sacrifice market shareAt the expense of maximizing current profits, their market position may be weakened. For Apple, the right thing to do is to cut the ipad and iphone prices and reinvest more of their profits. Apple's profit margins are high, and Apple is still profitable, even if the ipad and iphone prices are slashed. In this way, Apple can increase the growth of equipment sales and expand its global market share. The so-called fish and bear cake can not be both. Apple will not be able to maintain its market dominance of mobile systems and maintain high margins. As competitors become more powerful, and Android and other systems become more popular, iOS will gradually become a niche system. Ultimately, if iOS becomes such a system, it loses value to developers and publishers, and the consequences are disastrous. So Apple's investors and supporters should not overlook the issue of last quarter's ipad sales, and they should expect Apple to release a highly priced tablet. (Edward)