As a technology giant, Apple has always brought traffic, such as the annual technology Spring Festival Gala (iPhone new product launch conference), iOS system function iteration, new mobile phone color matching, annual financial reports and other topics, will be amplified by the public into the focus of attention. The end of the year is approaching, and all manufacturers have tacitly switched to the "rest" state, but Apple's attention has not diminished.
On January 30, Tianfeng International analyst Ming-Chi Guo issued an article saying that according to the **chain news, Apple has lowered the stock of upstream key semiconductor components, and iPhone shipments in 2024 are expected to be 200 million units, a year-on-year decrease of 15%, among the world's major mobile phone brands, Apple's decline is expected to be the largest, and even Apple's weekly shipments have experienced a year-on-year decline of 30-40% in the past few weeks.
On February 2, Apple released a revenue report for the first quarter of fiscal year 2024 (Q4 2023), showing that although global revenue reached $119.6 billion, a year-on-year increase of 2%, the revenue of $20.8 billion in Greater China decreased by 13% compared with the same period in 2022 (Apple achieved revenue growth in the Americas, Europe, Japan and the rest of Asia Pacific). Coupled with the previous patent complaint against Apple Wach blood oxygen sensor by Masimo Medical Device Company, the European Union's decree on the opening of third-party app stores, and the encirclement and suppression of domestic manufacturers, it seems that it is not optimistic that it has become a fixed label for Apple.
However, data from a number of market research agencies show that Apple will rank first in the global mobile phone market in terms of shipments in 2023, and even the domestic market will suppress a number of domestic brands with an absolute advantage. You must know that Samsung has been the leader in the mobile phone market in the past decade, and the reason why Apple will be able to reach the top for the first time in 2023 is by no means due to external doubts and market decline. So, under the overall weak market situation, why can Apple overtake in corners?
Clause. First, the brand image is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and the user stickiness is high.
From selling kidneys for iPhones to sitting on 71% of the high-end market share, it seems that Apple is synonymous with high-end in the eyes of the public, for young people, mobile phones play an important role in eating, drinking, traveling, games and entertainment, learning and office and other scenarios, and it is not the best cheap to attract users to pay, appearance, touch fluency, imaging effect, chip performance and power consumption control performance will affect the user's brand favorability.
Referring to the "2023 China Mobile Internet Annual Report" released by Questmobile, in the data on the whereabouts of typical smart terminal replacement brands in December, 528% of Apple users choose this brand, 341% of Huawei users choose Huawei, and 49% of Xiaomi users will repurchase Xiaomi, which means that more than half of the old iPhone players will give priority to the Apple brand when replacing a new one.
Interestingly, among the top five best-selling smartphones in China released by Counterpoint, three models are iPhone products. Combined with Cook's statement in the earnings report** meeting that "the decline in revenue in Greater China is not the loss of iPhone popularity, but a reflection of the overall economic problem", we can conclude that Apple, which has been on the upper route for many years, has engraved high-end labels in the user's psychology, coupled with the touch fluency of the iOS system and the control of the app store to reduce the risk of virus advertising, it is naturally difficult for consumers who are used to the iPhone to accept other brands of mobile phone products.
Clause. Second, the hardware ecology is becoming more and more sound, covering the market in an all-round way.
In recent years, IoT has been the core of the market layout of domestic manufacturers, and mobile phone manufacturers represented by Huawei and Xiaomi have continued to expand their product dimensions and develop towards new energy vehicles, smart homes, medical and health care and other fields. It can be seen on Apple's official website that not only mobile phones but also Mac, iPad, Apple Watch, AirPods, AirTag, HomePod and many categories are on sale, and the Vision Pro headset has also begun pre-sale on January 19, and has achieved 200,000 units in the US market.
The iPad is a typical example, and its design not only caters to the aesthetic preferences of young users, but also covers the multiple functional needs of travel, office, and audio-visual entertainment. Not only can these end products seamlessly transition with the iPhone to create a more convenient and intelligent user experience, but the interconnected ecosystem can also enhance the attractiveness of the product, meet the changing needs of users, motivate consumers to deeply integrate into the Apple ecosystem, and even create additional revenue expenses.
For example, in China's smart tablet online market in 2023, the iPad will be 37The market share of 3% is the highest, and the market share of Huawei's tablet, which ranks second, is only 151%。And Apple's financial report also mentioned that in Q4 2023, the revenue from Mac will be $7.7 billion, the iPad revenue will be $7 billion, plus 119 of wearable home products accessoriesWith a revenue of 5.3 billion yuan and advertising service revenue, Apple, which has deep pockets, is not short of expansion funds.
For Apple, although there is no end to the car, there are not many terminal equipment categories, and the revenue, potential user groups and brand stickiness brought by these smart terminal devices are the best assets that manufacturers want.
Clause. 3. Strong R&D strength and remarkable product-oriented effect.
The word R&D is inseparable from the two key points of capital investment proportion and research direction. Data shows that in 2022, Apple will invest 246 in R&DUS$1.2 billion, accounting for 37 percent of revenue72%, behind Google, Meta and Microsoft, Huawei is in fifth place.
Although R&D investment and output are not completely proportional, another synonym for innovation is to burn money, and the high proportion of investment allows Apple to get involved in chips, automobiles, curved screen privacy protection, image sensors and other fields, and the R&D results will be directly displayed on iPhone and other devices. At the Q4 2023 earnings conference, Cook also said that Apple is developing generative AI technology, which will change application functions such as Siri and Message, and will even add large language models to Siri to achieve deep integration of Siri and shortcut applications, and vigorously promote AI function mining. In other words, Apple will not miss the AI PC and AI Phone outlets that will be popular in the market in 2024, and it is even very likely to be shown in the iPhone 16 series.
Of course, in recent years, Apple has been inferior to Android manufacturers in terms of technological innovation, and the product orientation of imaging image quality, image concept, fast charging power, battery optimization and other dimensions has begun to be decided by Android manufacturers, but new functions such as smart island and space will still cause a wave of imitation.
For Apple, high degree and questioning coexist, behind the global stability is a solid research and development foundation and smooth terminal interaction and deeply rooted brand perception, brand rush is not a marketing slogan, not to mention the first gimmick of the word, only everyone thinks you are high-end, willing to continue to pay attention to buy products, is the real market foundation.