The Silicon Valley company has been staling for some time now, hoping users’ commitment to the brand will still sell their products. But a new analysis shows Apple growth is on pause, as buyers await the new iPhone release.
It should had happened long time ago. In the smartphone business, Apple took advantage of its brand’s popularity and released iPhone models not that different from the previous. Obviously you’ve got to hand it to them: the inclusion of Siri rocked users’ world, but it didn’t actually provide for that much functionality. Anyway, it looks like buyers are saving money for that new iPhone so intensely rumored for the past few months.
Bloomberg Businessweek writes that buyers’ decision to await the new iPhone may put Apple growth on pause. It could very well be that Apple, currently the world’s most valuable company, will “post its slowest sales and profit growth in more than two years”.
It’s not like it didn’t happen before. Users got tired fast of Apple’s marketing schemes ahead of the company’s iPhone 4S release. Apple shares went down and plummeted earnings under analysts’ estimates for the first time in eight years. But as soon as the new iPhone model hit the stores, it sold incredibly fast.
That may very well happen again, with Apple’s iPhone 5 rumored to be launched this fall. That is if the rumors are correct, and iPhone 5 will spice up the game with spectacular new features that will really push it to the top of the market. And when you’ve got rumors saying iPhone 5 will be so much better than iPhone 4S why spend the money on a device that will be so last year’s technology in only a few months?
Anthony Scarsella, chief gadget officer at Gazelle.com, told Businessweek: “Customers are increasingly tech-savvy and they want to have the latest and greatest”. His website buys and sells second hand iPhones among other electronics and he noticed sales are stale four to six months before a new iPhone is expected to hit the market.
Jim Ferrer, commercial insurance broker in San Francisco, talks for most of the buyers interested in Apple’s iPhone. “There are so many changes that keep coming out that I want to make sure I get the right one. Then I’ll stick with it” he said.
