Old iPhones are being used longer

Apple recently recorded its first decline in iPhone sales, which lead to the company’s first quarterly revenue decline in 13 years. All across the industry people were predicting the fall because of the lackluster product lineup by Apple over the years after Steve Job’s demise as each year Apple was just repacking the products with the same predictable design and specifications. The only difference between each successive year product was the claim that the new iPhone was the best ever with the same black themed slides promising varying degrees of x-times performance and the gradually rising prices. There was, however, another reason than the unimpressive lineup, that was the changing habits of buying smartphones in US smartphone market. People were no longer running after the latest and greatest because of lack of any differentiating factor. A study conducted by Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP) started the fact that people instead of buying new iPhones every year waited for their existing iPhones to turn into antiques for two years or older to upgrade to a newer device.Features like TouchID, Force Touch, and difference screen size of iPhone from the one once Job’s claimed to be the perfect size for the consumer were desperate attempts at trying to make the product look desirable in a saturated market. Features like TouchID, Force Touch, and difference screen size of iPhone from the one once Job’s claimed to be the perfect size for the consumer were desperate attempts at trying to make the product look desirable in a saturated market. The company while trying to gain a foothold in newer markets like China failed to capture the imagination of consumers as reported by CNN Money. In addition to the lack of growth, Carriers also moved away from the subsidised model where people could swap and easily get the latest device at the fraction of the cost. Now consumers had to pay to full cost of the device  and to combat the lack of such policy, Apple launched its own program to encourage more consumers with older iPhones to a newer device every year. This study comes immediately after reports of Apple changing its launch cycle from launching a new iPhone every year to every two years.