This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
France Telecom CEO Blames Poor iPhone Sales On "Frugal Customers"
When wondering why AAPL disappoints once more on its next earnings release, please pull a Bill Gross and look in the mirror, dear broke consumer, because it is your fault. At least that is the spin by the CEO of France Telecom, who says that iPhone sales are now being threatened by, drumroll please, "frugal buyers." That's right: in France "frugal" is now a dirty word. Not socialism, not 75% taxes, not budget ministers charged with rooting out tax fraud and lying about their Swiss bank accounts, not movie legends who can't wait to get Russian passports - it's "frugality" that is at fault. Because how dare French consumers not load up on cheap, government subsidized credit card debt and splurge like good old Americans who can't wait to pledge their shotguns as collateral for clunkers, and who haven't paid their mortgage in years courtesy of pervasive debt forgiveness for deadbeats, spending on iCrap instead? The France Telecom CEO demands answers now!
From Bloomberg:
France Telecom SA Chief Executive Officer Stephane Richard, head of one of Europe’s largest wireless carriers, said the increasing frugality of customers is threatening sales of pricey phones such as Apple Inc.’s iPhone. “We are in a period of changing consumer behavior,” Richard said yesterday during an interview at Bloomberg’s headquarters in New York. There are fewer shoppers in search of the latest and greatest gadget, and more of them are seeking lower prices on wireless service, he said.
Unpossible: don't these good French socialists realize it is their sworn patriotic duty to fund the Chinese current account surplus using borrowed money they will most likely never repay?
The shift has been especially severe in Europe, where more customers are keeping the same phone when they switch carriers. Amid a slumping economy and mounting competition, France Telecom has seen prices drop 25 percent over the past three years, squeezing profit margins and its stock price. Its cheapest plan now provides unlimited calls and texting and 3 gigabytes of data for about 20 euros ($26) a month -- about half the price of T-Mobile USA Inc.’s $50 plan, which is touted as a U.S. bargain.
The persistent belt-tightening in France and elsewhere in Europe has decreased the number of consumers who buy the latest phones at top prices, Richard said. Without a carrier subsidy, the iPhone typically sells for about $600, making it too pricey for many shoppers, he said.
The change may be felt when Apple introduces its latest iPhone this year, Richard said. The product’s annual refresh has traditionally drawn long lines and a frenzy of anticipation since it first debuted in 2007.
“There are fewer early adopters, and probably with the next release of the iPhone this will be evident,” Richard said. “Selling a phone for $600 is getting more and more difficult.”
Maybe the French, like their American peers, should buy a home at a price far greater than they can ever possibly afford, and then demand it is their constitutional right to never pay even one mortgage payment? Because if one hopes that the mythical concept known as "cash flows" will ever go back to historical levels in a continent which as we reported earlier this week is now growing at brisk, 19th century growth levels, one will be waiting a long, long time.
In conclusion:
“Customers are more focused on price,” Richard said. “Except for a few hundred thousand people who will buy the latest iPhone -- except for that category of people -- the majority of the market will be difficult.”
That's ok. Apple has billions and billions in cash, which however will naturally dwindle to zero eventually from dividend payments, should the entire world suddenly be as evilly "frugal" as those non-cooperative French buyers.
In the meantime, just BTFD, because with Uncle Ben and his magic technicolor printer which just spews endless cash with which the Primary Dealers can buy the S&P, why bother with such trivia as math and the real world?
h/t Brian
- 11234 reads
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
- advertisements -



iPoor
You goddamn frugal customer, you... Ugh!
There's no reason to buy an iPhone anymore, the gap in the app world has narrowed considerably, competitor operating systems are just as good as iOS but without the clunky shackles of iTunes, the hardware competition out of Korea and Hong Kong is innovating far more quickly than Apple is, and there are better options for less money. Good luck with AAPL, hedgies.
Savings accounts = Cash hording..... great
Savings accounts = bank recapitalization sources!
Funny how Mr. Telecom CEO fails to notice the fact that technology, as always, has overshot the needs of the market.
Raise the sales tax on all phones to 75%! Problem solved! Next!
Mr. Telecom CEO hasn't failed to notice it at all.
Mr. Telecom CEO has Nokia Asha smartphones waiting in the wings for Apple sales to tank before rolling out $50 - $130 smartphones with little to no subsidy and which also run hefty compression built in for those frugal customers who also want to save on their data plans. Particularly cos then they can run higher levels of overcommit on their networks as well.
http://www.nokia.com/gb-en/phones/asha/
(Yeah, long NOK)
Not to mention that 99% of the apps are useless.
It seems they do a nice job of spying on everyone (as does Android apps).
99.999%
Frugal??? BWAAAAAAAAAA so that's what flat ass busted is called in France.
iPril Fools!
Non-volitional frugality.
How's Samsung's sales?
You goddamn BROKE customers, you...UGH!
Fixed it
France don't know how to innovate like Americans..Make NINJA / Subprime iPhone loans to the poor at 20%APR, securitize them, then sell off the tranches... CF Reuters article on subprime autoloans. The best part of the article was the poor guy--2 jobs, American dreamer, spending his $15k a year on bourbon glazed chicken at Outback or Applebees or TGIF and lamenting that he had to buy anothe iPhone because he lost his other one.
Only in America can you get a Section 8 check and an EBT card while leasing an Escalade with the works and spending other people's disposable (taxpayer) income on frivolous junk and one-time consumables.
if he needs a job, he should apply to be a contestant on The Running Man, er uh, i mean Survivor.
http://news.ino.com/headlines/?newsid=68655696807300
iPoorAss
more good news for AAPL sales: "15:55 BestBuy (BBY) cuts prices on some iPads by 30% according to Cult of Mac"
this stuff is smokin'. kudos.
I'm sure this is only transitory.
I am pretty happy and proud of my 10$ brand new samsung dumb phone.
@Floodmaster
Le Cell du Flambeux (Franglish for "Burner Phone")
Sure, you will be till it falls apart in 6 months. Try a Nokia instead, and if you want a smartphone for $50 try one of their Asha series, designed for developing markets.
Clearly they need a new tax on evil greedy rich people to pay for everyone's iFone's - everyone's entitled to one, ya'know???
Stick that up your Depardieu!
Correction: Depart-ieu.
The consumer society is about to collapse... gentlemen, prepare yourselves !!
It wouldn't have to collapse if we weren't so irrationally frugal. I feel guilty.
iWant... no iNeed it. iNeeeed it.
Who coulda seen that a consumer society would eventually consume itself, like a snake eating its tail?
Expiry date about to be reached, like for the fiat currencies,
wealth redistibution will be the outcome ==> from paper to assets
Sit! Beg! Now roll over, consumer!
Nien
adverse possession
nope. banksters constitutional rights to sell MBS CDO and earn off it and not have to worry about it.
you got it the wrong way round.
adverse possession is practically impossible to arise from permissive use... rather, the bigger issue facing lenders is the statute of limitations.
I thought Frenchmen had a notority as cheap tippers throughout Europe. Anyway, my frugal self still uses my 3G and no plans on changing.
4G is shite. ur battery burns out so fast it's just dumb.
4g makes internet usage on mobile devices bearable... as far as I'm concerned, it's a game changer for mobile content.
That said, you can hit your data allotment in no time with it...
PS, you can get an upgraded battery.
Kind of hard to be short-tem bullish on any good you can't buy with a subsidy, like food stamps, or raton cards, or student loans, or Medicaid/Medicare, or whatever.
In this brief interim phase betwen the parabollic rise in government subsidies, and "austerity", subsidies are king, earnings are for chumps.
The answer is obvious. Apple should use its cash mountain to buy Congess and their lobbyist puppetmasters to subsidize the sale of I-Phone. All American, in a Shenzhen-sort-of-way.
at what point would the dividend AAPL gives be worth holding the share?
i say Jobs is dead and left us a huge treasure! LETS TEAR IT DOWN FOR OURSELVES(meanwhile we have in place someone who looks like him to take the fall)
:)
That sounds like the premise for a good book.
Fuck Apple. I reactivated my StarTAC and eschew smartphones outside of work so that I may more righteously mock the zombies wandering around with those I-thingy's.
They're probably just tired of being ass raped by their 2-year contracts and concluded it isn't worth it.
We are heading to financial Armageddon at Ludicrous Speed.
It is as if the economic plan was designed by "Spaceballs"!
AAPL should sell their labor arbritraged crap and business plan in Asia where it belongs. If they want to suck off this country ...and Europe then they should contribute something to it too.
... and that goes for the horse you rode in on.
... trending ...
Need a law to force people to buy an iPhone and a Droid and ...
It has to be clear that in order to become CEO of a state owned enterprise in France (and probably in every other sinking country) one has to be part of the political system and in order to be part of this political system being a clueless liar and being a 110% keynesian are key requirements.
Why doesn't the gubmint just buy them for all the poor people? It works in USSA.
plus de fromage du gouvernement?
Moar! Moar! Moar! - Hollande
Spain has seen their cable Tv and cellphone use drop over the last few years. When people are broke, they have no choice.
people should look into xbmc.
We can't have that here. How would they pay A-Rod his $25MM a year for not playing?
If it were not for the French and Benjamin Franklin we would never have been able to pull off the Revolution. Will we help the French or will they help us to bring down the NEW ruling class of Plutocrats? Don't know...can't call on these cheap ass Chinese phones.
These frugal customers wouldn't be so frugal if we had hyperinflation to discipline them.
i guess, misery doesn't love company...
The frugal Franch will cut back on everything else before they give up their gourmet meals and expensive wine.
Until the only thing left is cake.
Luckily for Apple, there's still plenty of clueless idiots buying phones they don't need.
Just today, I had lunch with my son, who works tech support for a local evil-do(good)er charity org. One of the executive directors had a new iPhone they were having trouble with and passed it off to him. Turns out she had never created an iTunes account after having an iPhone for over three years.
Talk about paying a premium for services never once utilized. Priceless!
so the EU message is clear:
- SPEND YOUR MONEY OR WE WILL CONFISCATE IT! -
If it was just the price of the iphone I might be tempted. It's the monthly fees required to use the thing that is totally rediculous.
It all started back with Cable. I got rid of cable when they wouldn't let me pay a yearly fee in advance. They don't want you to own it. They want to own you.
Everything is monthly payments. Take a look at your monthly bills, you'd be surprised what you can actually do without. Instead of spending for your unnecessary divergences go outside for a walk, better yet spend some time with your kids.
"Selling a phone for $600 is getting more and more difficult"
Maybe because more people are realizing that your overpriced phone was made for $6 by a 15-year-old pimple faced Chinese boy at the end of a 14 hour shift?
I mean, isn't it clear they want you bankrupt, because once you're bankrupt you can be controlled like sheep?
or you can use it....i am not paying the banks mortgage or property taxes or anything anymore...i have seen the light of obama , king of kings...fuck them all and bring it down i say andwish for....i am an new obamaite and laughing at everyone
The would be French iShit customers aren't frugal. They're fuckin' broke. Coming to America soon.
Exactly ! I thought the French/Euro quasi socialist model allowed for free iphones to be distributed or redistributed...
Frugal - fancy word for unemployed and broke at the same time.
Methinks we will see the word frugal showing up a lot in Europe over the next few months. Unilever’s European operations boss Jan Zijderveld has said that “poverty has returned to Europe.” Univlever intends to use marketing techniques in Europe that they developed for poorer Asian markets.
kind of idiotic to blame the iPhone-with 25%unemployment-nobody's buying nothing.....