As the pioneer of the era of smart phones, Apple has been leading the trend of the global mobile phone market since the release of the first iPhone. In addition to the iPhone, Apple's Mac Book and iPad are also selling well around the world, becoming the best choice for young people to pursue the perfect integration of fashion and technology.
High-end positioning, trendy design, the ultimate human-computer interaction experience, after the Apple mobile phone entered China, it frantically harvested leeks one after another, so that some people did not hesitate to cut their waists to make money in order to buy iPhones, such a crazy move, Apple CEO Cook was shocked.
However, with the rise of domestic mobile phone brands such as Huawei, many domestic consumers also have other alternative choices, so although Apple is strong, it is not so "crazy" under the clamp of domestic friends, especially since encountering a full-blooded Huawei mobile phone equipped with Kirin chips, iPhone's previous market share in China once fell to 8%, so that many people feel that Apple is going to be "cool" in China.
Without Huawei, Apple can do whatever it wants
However, since Huawei was suddenly sanctioned, Kirin chips and other core components were cut off, Apple has become the biggest beneficiary, many consumers who love high-end models, after Huawei's absence, had to turn to Apple, for a while, Apple suddenly "stood up", the market share soared to 20% today, back to the top of the mobile phone sales list, so that Huawei Yu Chengdong had no choice but to say "Huawei fell, Apple is full".
In the days when there was no Huawei mobile phone "constraint", Apple's small life was really moist, Cook felt that he could do it again, so Apple also began to have some "fluttering" arrogance, innovation continued to "squeeze toothpaste", marketing all kinds of "demons", even if it caused a lot of dissatisfaction with fruit fans, Apple did not care, and some executives even said wildly: love to buy or not, if you don't like iPhone, you can change to Android!
Speaking of Apple's innovation "squeezing toothpaste", in fact, it is already an open secret in the industry, Apple has a huge investment in the field of research and development every year, and the number of patents and inventions is also very considerable, but what is unpredictable is that many of Apple's innovations are not all applied to the main products such as the iPhone, only tinkering on the previous generation of iPhone every year, and then cutting leeks on the market in the way of "squeezing toothpaste".
Take the iPhone 14 mobile phone, which was popular in 2022, as an example, compared to the previous generation iPhone 13, this model of mobile phone has almost no difference in configuration and design, but it is sold by Apple at a higher price. The latest iPhone 15 mobile phone series has also been complained about by the outside world, except that the charging interface has been replaced with a Type-C interface, there are almost no bright spots. In addition, the latest iPhone 15 series has been continuously exposed by users, and there are serious design and quality control problems, which almost ruined Apple's reputation.
In order to further reduce costs, Apple under the guise of "environmental protection", selling mobile phones simply does not even send chargers, and when mobile phone manufacturers around the world continue to popularize the Type-C charging interface, they have always been unmoved, insisting on their own patent authorization, and the Lightning interface that has remained unchanged for thousands of years, just to maximize their own interests, without taking into account the extra money paid by the majority of Apple users to buy chargers, and endure the charging time that can be called turtle speed.
You know, according to the British "Daily Mail" estimates, no longer distributing original chargers has saved Apple more than $6.5 billion a year, and insisting on using the Lightning charging interface has allowed Apple to continue to rely on the Lightning interface licensing agreement and make billions of dollars a year. I have to say that Cook, who came from the supply chain, can be regarded as a thorough play of open source and cost reduction, cost reduction and efficiency increase.
However, the happier the leeks on Apple's side, the stronger the consumers' complaints and dissatisfaction will be, and in the end, Apple still pays for its arrogance.
Faced with the "ban", Apple "obediently" compromised
In the face of Apple's various "big store bullies" and "non-martial arts" innovation and marketing, many consumers are increasingly dissatisfied, and the market supervision departments of relevant countries and institutions are also eyeing this unbeatable technology giant.
As early as last year, as the international mainstream electronics manufacturers have joined the Type-C interface protocol, the standardization and unification of electronic product charging and data transmission have been promoted, but as the leader in the field of mobile phones, Apple has been procrastinating on the implementation of the Type-C interface, for this reason, the European Union specially issued an "ultimatum" to Apple, which must be replaced by the unified Type-C interface with the Android camp before the fall of 2024, otherwise EU countries will ban the sale of iPhones.
Coincidentally, the Brazilian government accused Apple of violating local laws by selling iPhones without sending chargers, and required Apple to send chargers for iPhones sold in Brazil, otherwise it would be expelled from the Brazilian market. Last year alone, Brazil issued multiple multimillion-dollar fines to Apple for not sending chargers.
In addition, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the mainland said at the beginning of this year that it would promote the unification of the charging interface of electronic products on the market, and even deliberately displayed Apple's "maverick" Lightning interface, which is self-evident.
In the face of strong market pressure, Apple knows that its small arms can't twist its thighs, so it has to choose to compromise with the market, and finally, the iPhone 15 series released by Apple in 2023, the Type-C interface is finally long overdue. However, although Apple has realized the requirement of carrying a Type-C interface on the iPhone, Cook still has an extra eye, and the charging and transfer speeds of different iPhone versions are very different, but in terms of performance, "force" consumers to buy more high-end Pro version models.
In addition, because Apple followed the U.S. government to side with Ukraine on the issue of Russia and Ukraine, and banned the sale of Apple mobile phones in Russia, Russia, which faced Apple's supply cutoff, announced in retrospect that it would ban government employees from using Apple mobile phones, and it may even ban personal use of Apple mobile phones in the future. In addition to Russia, according to industry insiders, because of the depreciation of the Turkish currency, Apple directly stopped selling iPhones in Turkey, and for this reason, the Turkish side directly announced a ban on the sale of Apple in anger.
With the announcement of a ban on the sale of Apple in some countries, Apple's position in the global market is becoming increasingly difficult, you know, due to the lack of innovation in Apple products in recent years, the demand for the iPhone has been weak in many countries. What's more, with the return of the king of Huawei mobile phones, Apple will have to face Huawei's backstab again, which can be described as "the enemy at present", and Apple will continue to do this in the future, I am afraid that there is really no capital for consumers to continue to pay.