r/apple • u/filmantopia • 8h ago

iPhone Apple Retail Staff Told to Warn Against iPhone Duo Walk-In Purchases

https://www.macrumors.com/2026/10/17/staff-warn-against-iphone-duo-walk-ins/
1.4k Upvotes

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18

u/FoolishProphet_2336 7h ago

Apple’s a hardware company. Always has been. The software, services and apps are all a minor part of their business model to sell more hardware. This is their payday.

10

u/flogman12 7h ago

Not if they don’t make enough

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u/[deleted] 7h ago

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u/[deleted] 7h ago

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u/HGHUA 7h ago

I think the report said a couple hundred at one point. But they must have ramped that up since 1-200 a day is don’t even bother releasing it territory

4

u/anyavailablebane 7h ago

With your math it would take 50,000 days to make 5 million. Do you really think they have been producing this phone for the last 137 years to build up that 5 million stock? Be serious mate.

2

u/katmndoo 7h ago

Your math is a bit off.

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u/blackgenz2002kid 7h ago

I laughed at the time when I heard it but the fact of the matter is that Apple makes machines. MacBook Pros, Studios, Airpods, Watches, and the iPhone especially. the Duo is just another product in line with that with how precise it probably needs to be engineered to even make it. seems they weren’t ready for how many people wanted to experience this machine for themselves

8

u/TeslasAndComicbooks 7h ago

That used to be the case but the hardware is just a mechanism to sell software and services these days. That’s why they opened up Apple TV to all platforms and they make a killing on the App Store.

Hardware alone is a slow growth vertical.

2

u/Potential_Salt_5780 3h ago

This is the correct answer. Services are now 25% of their revenue and much higher margins. Hardware gets customers hooked then services keep them in.

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u/mr_mope 7h ago

3/4 of the revenue is still hardware. It’s their biggest advantage over their competition.

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u/ThatsNotGumbo 7h ago

Lot higher profit margin on the software side though. But fundamentally Apple is a lifestyle company. It’s the entire ecosystem that makes them the powerhouse that they are.

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u/LiquorIsQuickor 3h ago

I should be kind of pissed. But lifestyle company seems pretty fair.

5

u/bubbaguy 6h ago

Revenue doesn’t equal profit. Quick internet search indicates that Apple’s software services has a ~75% margin while hardware only nets ~35%. Apple’s true value lies in their skills at intertwining both.

Their hardware wouldn’t be as valuable without their software, and their software’s value lies in its ability to simplify consumers’ lives. Apple has created a walled garden 100’ high that most consumers are completely content with.

With the iPhone reaching full maturity and only receiving incremental updates (excluding the duo). It fits that Apple has started focusing more on generating revenue through subscription services and ads. With prices of material rising globally, I would expect this gap in profit to expand in the years to come. Raising the price of iCloud storage by $1/mo will receive less scrutiny than increasing the cost of the iPhone by another $100.

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u/Potential_Salt_5780 3h ago

This is the correct answer. Source: went all in on AAPL @$5 a share in 2007.

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u/culminacio 40m ago

True, but rising a monthly cost by $1 doesn't equal to a one-time-payment of $100 at all. You're getting those 100 every time the customer buys a phone every few years and each time they buy another one of your expensive products.

Also, that monthly cost is for the whole account, so you're not draining the customer in 5 ways like when you're selling him 5 hardware products.
Of course Apple has various ways of getting money out of ongoing small payments. But you said it as if raising the cost of iCloud storage by only $1 was doing much in comparison to higher hardware prices.

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u/TheVajDestroyer 7h ago

You have this backwards

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u/DONOTSAYTHENWORD 5h ago

No, they are a hardware company. Apple Computers, not Apple Software.

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u/MightyTastyBeans 7h ago

No? Their revenue is 50% iphone, 26% services. The rest is other hardware.

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u/FollowingFeisty5321 6h ago

Their profit is nearly 50% services.

In fact by profit, Google's advertising powered by their invasive tracking is probably Apple's 2nd or 3rd biggest business accounting for $20+ billion profit annually, most likely slightly ahead of the Mac or iPad, and advertising overall is definitely ahead of them if you include their own ad services.

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u/Osle99ss 3h ago

Fourweekmba states 75% gross margins.

4

u/Ok_Fail_1770 6h ago

Tbh the software ties all the hardware together. Millions of people that might be curious to switch to android wont because of software compatibility. So it’s not a stretch

1

u/i-love-small-tits-47 6h ago

Revenue isn’t profit, and the services are way more profitable, and growing.

1

u/ElegantBiscuit 7h ago

And the services depend on the software. They don't make app store money or sell apple care plans for android phones, and I doubt that an icloud storage plan is a windows user's first choice for cloud storage.

1

u/[deleted] 7h ago

[deleted]

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u/Dick_Lazer 4h ago

You're just circling back to what they were saying in the first place.

The software, services and apps are all a minor part of their business model to sell more hardware.

0

u/Shigy 6h ago

lol

2

u/ddare44 2h ago

Wrong

“Apple is fundamentally a software company."

Jobs explained that Apple builds its high-value hardware as the vehicle to deliver and control an integrated, end-to-end user experience powered by its proprietary software (such as macOS, iOS, and iPod software). He often framed hardware as a canvas or vessel for the software that truly defines the product.

1

u/SchmeckleHoarder 7h ago

They make a shit of services for basically nothing…. iPhones still make a majority of their money, but R&D, espionage, and manufacturing are expensive….

It’s a big, but they’ll be fine. Clearly everyone’s ok waiting until March.

1

u/SC_W33DKILL3R 2h ago

What are you on about. The story is about them not having stock and Apple both a hardware and software company. The two go hand in hand and one wouldn’t exist without the other.

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u/BigSprinkler 1h ago

They’ve long realized this isn’t a sustainable business model. Hence why they focus on taking a third of App Store revenue, ads in apps, Apple TV, etc.

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u/Nelsonius1 7h ago

The icloud subscriptions are software in my opinion.

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u/LemonCurdd 3h ago

I’d argue they’re a marketing company.

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u/BlackTriceratops 7h ago

Theyre getting the screens from samsung tho lol

5

u/j1h15233 7h ago

As they have for years. No one makes every part of their phone

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u/epitome1986 7h ago

yup, 50% of the components of the fold 8 arent from samsung or any of their subsidiaries.

4

u/Ok_Possibility9937 7h ago

so does every smartphone companies

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u/[deleted] 7h ago

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u/ScrawnyCheeath 7h ago

A dropshipper sells product from a supplier catalog. Apple actually designs their own hardware

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u/vash_visionz 7h ago

Forgive him. He just learned the word dropshipper and was eager to use it lol

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u/[deleted] 7h ago

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u/Captain_Alaska 6h ago edited 6h ago

That's still not dropshipping. Dropshipping by definition is a company that doesn't have any retail space or warehouses and just acts as an intermediate for marketing and shipping the actual product which only goes from the manufacturer to the customer.

Apple obviously has retail stores and keeps stock on hand so by definition they cannot be a dropshipper regardless of where the product comes from or who it was designed by.

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u/[deleted] 4h ago

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u/Captain_Alaska 4h ago

Try reading the comment again.

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u/[deleted] 4h ago

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u/Captain_Alaska 4h ago

They could take another companies product wholesale and sell it and it still wouldn’t be dropshipping. Read my comment.

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u/[deleted] 4h ago

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u/Ok_Possibility9937 7h ago

why? because they’re using samsung screen? lol

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u/[deleted] 7h ago

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u/Ok_Possibility9937 7h ago

so like every smartphone companies? Have you heard of Google? Nothing? You think a smartphone just come out of Steve Jobs ass without R&D?

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u/[deleted] 7h ago

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u/Ok_Possibility9937 7h ago

that doesn’t mean that they are a dropshipping company lmao

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u/[deleted] 7h ago

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u/Ok_Possibility9937 7h ago

so does every smartphone companies?

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u/[deleted] 4h ago

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u/Kekafuch 6h ago

Built from their combined IP. A dropshipper has no IP, has no product. They only have an agreement to buy product at a discount and request it get shipped to someone else with agreed upon packaging. Apple controls their product. You can buy individual parts from suppliers outside of Apple but there’s no guarantee it will work and it will cost you more than paying Apple for the product.

Some of the hardware is made by other companies on Apples specifications and their IP. Apple may even own the equipment these companies use to manufacture the hardware.

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u/ebbi01 7h ago

If you think Apple just designs their hardware and someone else makes it, you’ve got a very simplistic view of this.

Apple (and other hardware companies like Samsung) have world class engineers that invent new methods and processes and work with manufacturers to realise it. Go look at the many patents that Apple has that are hardware related.

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u/SLAPHAPPY_BUTTCHEEKS 7h ago

Stupidest Apple take I’ve seen in god knows how long, congratulations! Quite the feat.

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u/Roid-a-holic_ReX 7h ago edited 6h ago

Bro Apple is a marketing company above all else.

Edit: ITT a bunch of people who don’t know what marketing means.

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u/Cheech74 7h ago

Except their hardware and software have been some of the best in the game since the company began.

Calling Apple a company who only sells due to marketing is a pretty stupid take.

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u/SQL_INVICTUS 41m ago

> since the company began

That’s not true though. They’ve been playing a good game for a long while, but they did have some major fuck ups in the past.

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u/Roid-a-holic_ReX 6h ago

Think what you want about it but their hardware is pretty middling. They’re never the best of the hardware world, their software is usually decent, but they have strong marketing with their walled garden and cult following that keeps their sales high. They capitalize on people’s intrinsic desire to keep up with the joneses and put on a public image of style and wealth.

2

u/Broue 5h ago

I mean Apple invented the desktop windows GUI that we use today (the feature not the operating system) when the next best thing was a command terminal. That also prompted them to design a mouse. (Computers before GUIs didn’t need a mouse) The next best thing for at least 2 years following the iPhone launch was a blackberry and more recently their CPUs have year to year spec growth that we would only see 20 years ago. (20%+ processing power increase over previous year)

5

u/JazzlikeBreakfast495 7h ago

This is a stupid fucking comment - they’re good at marketing, as are so many companies.

They make excellent products that are priced at a premium.

Stop repeating dumb things trying to sound smart.

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u/Ok_Fail_1770 7h ago

Really odd behavior for a consumer opinion to get you talking like that

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u/Additional_Olive3318 6h ago

He’s right though. All companies have marketing departments. I almost never see an Apple advertisement, to be honest. 

0

u/Roid-a-holic_ReX 6h ago

They certainly have ads. They have their September releases, and other high profile product launches. their Apple stores, banners and such in strategic places. They also have everything single product with unique characteristics so that everyone knows it’s an Apple product. Why do you think they offer different coloured products? So that when you see it you know that it’s the latest when you see it out in public.

1

u/Additional_Olive3318 6h ago

I think Apple gets some product placement, and I suppose there are different coloured products. That’s not a paid for advertisement. 

The only campaign I remember was the iPod silhouette. Years ago.  

My local Vodafone shop has a sandwich sign in marker outside with iPhone 18 pro here, come in. That’s it. 

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u/Roid-a-holic_ReX 5h ago

Quick google search tells me their paid spending is 7-8billion annually. It’s just not spent in ways that are apparent to your understanding of advertising.

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u/Ok_Fail_1770 5h ago

Ding ding ding

0

u/Ok_Fail_1770 5h ago

Still odd behavior to respond to somebody giving an opinion the way they did

1

u/JazzlikeBreakfast495 5h ago

Op edited his post

1

u/TheCheckeredCow 6h ago

No they’re a hardware/software company.

Google is a marketing company that also makes software and hardware, so they can advertise to you more.

Microsoft is a software company with a huge marketing/data collection element that dabbles in hardware.

1

u/hue-166-mount 7h ago

Nope. It’s a hardware and software business. Go read the annual reports.