Apple creates new ways to juice sales in saturated market

Bloomberg

Apple Inc executives put aside their typical praise of the iPhone’s sleek design and breakthrough technology for more mundane topics such as instalment plans, trade-in programs and giveaways.
This is the reality for the Cupertino, California-based technology giant.
The smartphone market is saturated and growing slowly at best, so Apple must find new ways to persuade consumers to upgrade their iPhones and sell them digital services and
accessories.
Fiscal fourth-quarter results, suggested the strategy is beginning to work. While iPhone revenue dropped 9%, overall sales rose and the company forecast more top-line growth for the key holiday period.
The shares gained 1.6% to $247.14 as the market opened Thursday, valuing the company at $1.1 trillion.
Services and accessory revenue jumped to records as users bought apps for their existing iPhones, attached wearable devices like AirPods and Apple Watches, and subscribed to services like Apple Music and iCloud storage.
But the plan will only keep working if the installed base of active Apple devices grows steadily, led by the iPhone.
That will be a challenge because consumers aren’t upgrading to newer handsets as often as they once did. Over the last three years, the average age of a smartphone has increased more than three months to 19.5 months, according to research by UBS.
In a survey by the investment bank, respondents said they plan to replace their devices every 28.5 months, or almost two-and-a-half years.
During a conference call with analysts, Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook and Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri described a potential solution to this upgrade problem: A new feature for the Apple Card that lets users pay for their iPhones over 24 months with no interest and manage that payoff program directly from their iPhone.

Apple seeks tariff waivers on iPhone parts, watches, AirPods
Bloomberg

Apple Inc is seeking exclusions from President Donald Trump’s tariffs that went into effect from September 1 on the Apple Watch, iMac, parts for the iPhone and other components imported from China.
The company filed requests for exclusions from 15% duties on 11 products or components, the first day US firms could seek relief from the tariffs on about $110 billion in Chinese imports. The iPhone maker had mixed results on its requests for exclusions from the previous round of duties.
Apple also is seeking to avoid tariffs on the HomePod, the Beats Pill+ wireless speaker, AirPods and Beats wireless earbuds, iPhone smart battery case, the charging case for AirPods and the PowerBeats, storage components for the Mac Pro, and batteries for the iPhone and MacBook, according to the request posted online.