Why iPhone 15 needs to be irresistible

tech.hindustantimes.com:

Apple Inc.'s third straight quarter of declining revenue is a symptom of the fact that while people love to use the company's iPhones, they are these days feeling less pressed to buy a new one. If Apple wants to turn that around, bucking an industry-wide slump, the next iteration of its most popular product, which will be iPhone 15, needs to be a return to the days when owning the latest iPhone felt like a major upgrade. 

For the April-June period, iPhone sales of $39.7 billion — a 2.4% drop versus the same period last year — came in below analysts' expectations, as did the iPad, down 20% year-on-year and the Mac line, down 7.3%. Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri said device sales in the current quarter weren't looking too hot, either, blaming foreign currency headwinds and supply chain disruptions.

Another drop in revenue in the July-September quarter would mean the worst run of revenue declines for Apple in two decades. Shares were down about 3% in early trading Friday, dragging Apple's stock market value below the coveted $3 trillion level it reached at the end of June. That is despite overall company revenue being higher than expected due to Apple's booming services segment — the part of its business that covers subscriptions such as Apple TV and Apple Music. For the first time, there were more than 1 billion subscribers to its various offerings, Apple said, pushing up services revenue by 8.2%. 

While that was encouraging news for investors — services is Apple's most profitable segment — what they really care about is the health of the iPhone, which makes up more than half of Apple's annual revenue. So attention now turns to September, when Apple is set to launch the iPhone 15. 

Bloomberg News has reported that the