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Panic in Apple
  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    Talked to one developer inside Apple.

    Smartphone division since start of February is in total panic mode (not ala Olympus. it is light years behind). Developers fear Apple can be excluded from foldable phone niche. Despite all secrecy due to big number of necessary OS changes developers know very well progress with folding smartphone hardware.

    Samsung rejected providing any significant volume of folding screens to Apple until late 2020.

    Same thing is even more true with BOE, company who makes foldable screens for Xiaomi and all other Chinese brands.

    Rumors multiple like firestorm among iOS related developers as Apple can do first significant round of surgical cuts around April or May.
    Cut will follow next round of iPhones price cuts that can reach 30% on few markets, even 50%, if you account trade in that can be extended for cheap third party Android phones also. This is also tightly related with MacOS team being slowly transferred and taking much higher role among core iOS teams.

    April-May timing had been selected due to more clear understanding of China-US trade war progress, during this period it can be clear if Apple will be completely and officially thrown out from internal Chinese market, for now it is all being done using media propaganda (sales of Apple and Samsung are expected to drop around 80-90% this year in China).

    Industry rumors tell that Samsung S10 and present Apple iPhones will be discounted as much as 60% in December and first months of 2020 as all industry will start migration to folding phones leaving non-folding models only for entry level devices.

  • 18 Replies sorted by
  • TimTomTumTimTomTum

    So folding phones are actually taking over?

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    @TimTomTum

    Not in total volume yet, but in the niche where making smartphone and selling it is really profitable thing :-)

  • bannedindvbannedindv

    Can someone explain the advantage of a foldable smartphone to me ? Seems like a total nightmare.

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    @bannedindv

    Most people use smartphone to read/chat and watch videos now.

    Advantage is clear - much bigger screen space.

  • Sph1nxsterSph1nxster

    One device instead of two for a lot of people

  • DrDaveDrDave

    I've always thought that a phone should be able to fold into a tablet and the other way 'round.

  • konjowkonjow

    will that fold or roll only? :) Roll is still to big as a phone for me.

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    Now all options are folding ones, with Xiaomi being most advanced.

    In coming month it'll be fierce battle.

    Btw, some inside Samsung is also extra angry as due to top managers requests who wanted to sell more classic form factor phones they postponed release 2 times and now plan to charge huge sum for it.

  • ghkqnghkqn

    Foldable phones are likely going to eat into portions of the tablet market.

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    @ghkqn

    Tablet market is small, and it is 7-10" devices, mostly cheap and lot of them made to withstand children.

    Foldable phones can't compete yet with most of it.

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    Small but important addition.

    Time dedicated to hardware related questions on top managers meetings is sliding lower and lower constantly.

    All top management now is fixed on services and huge profits they think they will bring.

    Lot of important questions and requests of OS developers are left without any attention for months.

    Communication with hardware teams also degraded in last year a lot.

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    Watch carefully US press response to Samsung Folding smartphone. As it had been tightly coordinated with Apple office.

    Attack is focused on reflections being not uniform on unfolded screen, as you still have small remains of folding.
    On real usage you won't see any issue, actually.

    Considering more folding phones press will either fully keep silence leaving on few facts (in case of smaller brands) or launch full scale attack with lots of dirt (this will be Huawei and Xiaomi).

  • DrDaveDrDave

    Can't wait to see "quarto" folding devices.

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    From TSMC and other sources it became known that Apple will mostly skip this year, not making any significant updates.

    Company is even unable to present 5G smartphone.

    Rumors of internal workforce cuts (most probably it'll be made slowly by moving people to become outside contractors and later cutting contract) become stronger.

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    My source told that panic is now widespread (only among developers!). Overall situation is ok, but young developers are most sensitive guys who look for top money and nice perspectives. Some software development teams members started to look for backup places due to safety concerns. We can also expect around 20% iPhone sales drop due to starting new phase of trade war.

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    Small update. Apple will have several emergency management talks this week.

    While topics are not being made public it can be related to fully loosing Chinese market and also about coping with full production stop that can follow even within one week.

    Rumors are that Chinese officials can stop several Apple suppliers and assembly factories, all papers on this are ready.

  • ghkqnghkqn

    Building that $1B+ sparkling new HQ is a bad omen to the vanity of man. I had been with a few multinationals that built big brand new HQs, it's all downhill after (they did not know they reached their summits).

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    Apple management make quite transparent references during meeting that Apple position and sponsorship played significant role in that happens with Huawei. Higher management told that they will do all possible to destroy Huawei at US and EU markets and not allow them to sell smartphones. This can also mean that next step will be special patents and design related charges.

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