Cook uses "chips" to climb the ladder after 7 years, and dual SIM dual standby is just a stepping stone

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If the industry considered WWDC in June this year as Apple becoming soft, today, three months later, Apple has hardened.

At this year's autumn conference, Apple simply released three new mobile phones at once: iPhone Xs, iPhone Xs Max and iPhone XR. It also added physical dual card slots for the first time in the Chinese market, realizing dual-SIM dual standby in the true sense.

In terms of price, iPhone Xs Max is the first iPhone product with a starting price of over 9,000 yuan, and the top configuration is as high as 12,799 yuan. Apple Watch Series 4 just supports electrocardiogram, and the price of iPhone Xs Max will test your heart rate.

In fact, Apple is gradually pushing up the average selling price of the iPhone to achieve continued profit growth. The release of iPhone X last year has increased the average selling price of the iPhone to $724.

Apple's third-quarter financial report for fiscal year 2018 shows that driven by the iPhone business, the company's profits are higher than expected, and iPhone revenue currently accounts for 56% of the company's total revenue. This also explains why the overall mobile phone market is sluggish, iPhone sales growth is gradually slowing down, but Apple's profits are increasing.

To some extent, with the market experience of iPhone X, Apple has proved the ability of its products to maintain healthy profit growth among a relatively stable user base, so it has begun to continuously increase the price of the new iPhone.

Will dual SIM dual standby be your motivation to pay for it?

Dual SIM dual standby is a reason for users to pay for it, and the market has been looking forward to it for a long time, but it has never been realized. This is just like the expectation of Apple's large-screen mobile phone.

In 2011, when models led by Samsung's Note series began to shift to larger screens, Apple did not move. In 2013, it still launched the 4-inch iPhone 5s. It was not until the birth of the 4.7/5.5-inch iPhone 6 series in 2014 that users came out in droves like hungry wolves in a cage.

According to statistics from foreign media Android Authority, as of July this year, global sales of iPhone 6/6 Plus have reached a staggering 220 million units.

However, for Chinese users, the iPhone Xs Max can support dual SIM cards and dual standby with dual physical card slots, which is completely different from the price of the iPhone 6 series. Especially as the Chinese market has begun to show a trend of consumption downgrade, the dual SIM card and dual standby function may only impress those who have just the need.

What should really impress users is the new A12 Bionic chip in the iPhone: 7nm process, 6-core CPU, 4-core GPU and 8-core Neural Engine (AI) unit, which enables the new iPhone to have stronger processing performance and AR experience while generating more accurate 3D object information.

This chip is the most intelligent and powerful chip in the iPhone so far. It is equipped with a new generation of neural network engine and can perform 5 trillion operations per second, which is enough to make all other products in the market far behind. Especially in the era of AI hegemony, the performance of the chip directly determines the experience of the mobile phone. A12 Bionic directly uses real-time machine learning technology and has been applied in many aspects such as photos, games, and augmented reality.

At the scene, Hall of Fame player Steve Nash was present and demonstrated the APP application related to shooting training with the founder of the "NEX TEAM" application. This APP application can track the angle, area hit rate, shooting height, arc and many other parameters of each shot of the trainer. Through these parameters, the players can further analyze the flaws of each shot and improve them, and the coaching staff can provide more training guidance and suggestions for the players based on these data. The biggest contributor behind this is the A12 bionic chip, which tests the integration of software and hardware and highlights the capabilities of AI and AR.

It seems that dual SIM dual standby is just a stepping stone, and this chip is the highlight that makes users willing to pay for it.

What Cook didn't tell you

In fact, when many people are commenting on whether the new iPhone is expensive or not, Apple has quietly changed some things behind the scenes, and Cook did not tell you directly on the stage, such as:

1. The release of iPhone XR has made iPhone X a transitional product. Currently, iPhone X has been discontinued.

2. iPhone SE and 6s also disappeared from Apple's official website, marking the end of iPhones with headphone jacks;

3. All three new iPhones use Face ID, which means that the Home button and fingerprint recognition are completely abandoned.

The changes hidden behind these tell us that Apple is unifying its product line and "abandoning" its past self. Apple's competitive posture is always to use new products to successfully replace its old products.

Apple wants the iPhone XR to be your next iPhone X, giving users who were once put off by the high price of the iPhone X a similar experience to the iPhone X at a low price, and in a variety of colors. At the same time, the iPhone XR not only has a very similar design to the more expensive iPhone Xs model, but also has many of the same features, but at a much lower price.

iPhone Xs and iPhone Xs Max are stratified for high-end users, activating their desire to buy new iPhone technologies and continuing the purchasing cycle.

Not long ago, a report released by market research company Mixpanel showed that among Apple users, iPhone 7 is the most used model, followed by iPhone 6s, and models before iPhone 8 account for more than 70%, while iPhone X only accounts for 12%. It seems that in terms of iPhone user loyalty, there is a lot of room for improvement in the replacement rate.

Climbing uphill again after 7 years

If we count from 2011 when Cook took over as Apple CEO, this year is exactly the seventh year. Under his leadership, Apple just broke through the trillion-dollar market value not long ago.

Genius computer master Alan Kay once said: "People who really care about software should make their own hardware."

During the Jobs era, Apple's strategy was consistent, and it was recognized by the industry as a typical example of achieving the ultimate experience through the synergy of software and hardware performance. During the Cook era, this software and hardware capability was transformed into explosive growth in revenue and net profit.

Over the past seven years, Cook has long been under the halo of Jobs, managing the company in the face of questioning eyes from the board of directors, investors, and users. But amid these critical reviews, Cook has made Apple the world's most valuable technology company, and even accounted for more than 90% of the profits in the global mobile phone market at one point with the iPhone.

Jobs once said that it is impossible to tell which dots are connecting when looking forward, but only when looking back after an event can we discover several dots connecting.

Today, Cook is constantly seeking new drivers for the company's revenue growth, and even promoting the growth of "side businesses" such as AirPod. In this way, the trillion-dollar market value for Apple, looking back many years later, is just a certain node in the company's history.