The days of Apple being able to release an iPhone and having it sell like crazy are clearly over. I say that because on top of Apple having the iPhone 12 mini and iPhone 13 mini being sales flops, reports surfaced that the iPhone 14 Plus is facing similar sales headwinds. This is a big problem for Apple as they are addicted to iPhone sales like a crack user addicted to…. well crack. But I do have a solution for this which I’m going to share with you. But before I get to that, some background.
Once upon a time, you only had one iPhone. And your choice was how much storage you wanted to get with it. That made the purchasing process simple. But then Apple decided that it wanted to go downmarket and offer a cheaper iPhone. That was the iPhone 5C. Then Apple wanted to compete with Android phones that had a bigger size option. That debuted with the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. Then Apple decided to be in every possible phone price category possible. That’s when you started to see iPhones like the iPhone XR and the iPhone SE. Then the iPhone Mini made an appearance after people said that iPhones were too big.
The thing is, that’s problem number one. Problem number two is pricing. Take the iPhone SE for example. It’s more expensive than cheap Android phones, many of which come with bigger OLED screens with above 60 Hz refresh rates. Or take the iPhone 14 Plus. Why buy that if you can get a “Pro” iPhone for not much more money? Here’s a different look at that. Take what Apple did this year with the iPhone 14 lineup. Two phones had last year’s A series processor in it. The “Pro” phones had the new A series hotness. But the pricing was exactly the same which makes no sense. If Apple really wanted to go that route, what why should have done is lower the price of the iPhone 14 and 14 Plus so that there was more of a separation between the two. Because many people I have spoken to feel that Apple was not only trying to “force” people to buy the “Pro” models, but they were also trying to maximize the profits of those who bought the non-“Pro” models by using tech that they had already paid down last year.
The bottom line is that Apple has created a product and pricing strategy that makes zero sense. And now it’s coming back to bite them in the posterior. But this is fixable. And here’s what I would do to fix it:
- Starting with the iPhone 15, sell only the “Pro” versions: What this does is get rid of the confusion of having four models and takes away the perception that Apple is profiting off of tech that they have already paid down. Thus Apple needs to only sell what would be the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max in 2023. That way consumers are choosing the size of phone they want and the storage that they need. And they all the latest and greatest tech as part of the deal.
- The entry level iPhone 15 needs to start well below $1000 USD: While Apple was the first company to make a $1000 smartphone, that’s no longer sustainable. To better compete with Android phones like Samsung’s flagships, they need to drop what would be the iPhone 15 Pro to about $900 USD. That way it makes the iPhone a far more compelling option.
- Apple needs to blow up the iPhone SE and start from scratch: The iPhone SE is a bit of a joke in the line up at the moment. Because at $449 USD with what it comes with, the only thing compelling about it is the processor. Everything else isn’t that great and is not competitive with cheap Android phones. Thus Apple needs to redo the iPhone SE to make it sub $400 and give it a bigger screen (5.8″ would be a good size. Bonus points if they could go OLED but that might be a bit of a stretch) for starters along with Face ID. Also, they need to improve the camera hardware enough so that it can be more of a compelling value. All of this can be done by reaching into the parts bins of previous iPhones to put something together. They just have to be willing to pull that trigger.
- Sell previous models to fill in the gaps: To fill in the gap between the iPhone SE and the iPhone 15 Pro, Apple can continue to sell the previous models like the iPhone 14 and the iPhone 13 at steep discounts. That way they can hit the price points that they need to.
Simplifying the lineup and introducing more value would go a long way in terms of Apple’s issues with the iPhone. And if they wanted some extra credit, they should copy and paste a version of this into their laptop lineup as that’s starting to have the same look and feel of Apple’s iPhone lineup. For example, if you get a M2 MacBook Air with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage, you’re within spitting distance of a 14″ MacBook Pro in terms of price. And the MacBook Pro is much better computer. So why buy the MacBook Air? But what do you think? Am I out to lunch here, or are there further Tweaks to be made here? I’d love it if you leave a comment and share your thoughts below.