In this world, you can do many things in the market. But one thing I will suggest you do not do is to assume that your customers and consumers are stupid. Yes, we get into that phase where we think we can do anything and get away with it. People, it does not work that way. The last time Apple reported earnings, it was the most capitalized private company on earth. Today, it has lost hundreds of billions of dollars on market value.

What was Apple’s problem? It misfired on its pricing. And when that happened, customers revolted, leaving the one oasis in the company (the iPhone) and sales dropped 15%. Apple made an increasingly commoditized product category a fashionista product, putting the cost of iPhone out of the reach of many people.

The drop on iPhone sales was not going to hurt just on monetary terms, the planned transition into services (which grew 19% to a record $10.9bn for quarter ended 31 December) depends on more people using the devices since services win on volume. That explains why Apple wants to lower prices so that it can get many devices out of the stores. In most markets, Apple had already re-priced iPhone to make the device affordable for customers.

Apple boss Tim Cook has hinted it could lower iPhone prices in some places in an attempt to boost falling sales. Revenue from the iPhone, responsible for most of the firm’s profits, fell 15% in its latest financial quarter. Overall the firm’s revenue was down 5% from a year ago to about $84.3bn (£64.5bn).

[…]

But chief executive Tim Cook said customers were also struggling with the firm’s high prices.

He said a strong dollar, which makes its products comparatively more expensive, had hurt its sales in emerging markets.

Mr Cook said the tech giant had started this month to re-price its phones to shield customers from the impact of currency fluctuations.

Apple made a mistake here – its price modeling was off. Typically, companies do all to make pricing fixed in ways that they do not lose customers. I expect the numbers to adjust (i.e. sales to move north) now that Apple had started re-pricing its phones. Apple remains the leader on making the best smartphones in the world, and despite the competition, it has a clear moat on its strategy of proprietary hardware powered with exclusive software. Provided the pricing makes sense, many will still congregate into that Apple world for a long time.

Yet, the firm needs to make affordable phones for the services future:“And do not count out the possibility of $300 Apple uPhone (u for “universe”, lol) to help on that service volume; I suggested that last August.”

It is a fashionista product. And fashions come and go. When you add stubborn pricing model, you drop 15% on sales. Apple tastes like orange right now!

Apple’s (AAPL) first quarter 2019 earnings results, by the numbers: Apple said Tuesday that its sales for the all-important holiday quarter hit $84.3 billion. The figure was slightly better than Apple had warned investors to expect earlier this month, but nonetheless represented a 5% decline from the same quarter a year ago.

The sales decline was driven by a dip in iPhone sales, which Apple CEO Tim Cook previously said was primarily due to a slowdown in China. Apple’s iPhone revenue for the quarter fell 15%, to $51.98 billion.

Apple’s sales in China also fell considerably. It reported revenue in the region of $13.17 billion, down from $17.95 billion in the same period a year ago.

Apple stock initially rose as much as 3% in after hours trading Tuesday following the report.

As iPhone sales drop, Apple has no other path than deepening services. It needs to open iOS to other hardware systems to grow the services business since you need volume to win on services.

The last funding report is out, from companies that typically compile them in Africa. The summary is this: Nigeria did well across number of deals and total dollar amount, overtaking South Africa in the process. It is evident that investors are plotting to win Africa through Nigeria. I see that as a strategic redesign as decades ago, the window into sub-Saharan Africa was opened to the rays of Johannesburg and Cape Town.  It seems like lagoons of Lagos are looking better!

The report shows Nigeria emerged as the premier investment destination on the continent in 2018; with 58 startups raising a total of US$94,912,000.  South Africa fell behind with 40 businesses raising US$59,971,000; while Kenya ranked third in terms of the number of startups that raised.

The report also contains in-depth data on the investment landscape in Egypt, Ghana, and Uganda; as well as an overview of activity in 14 other countries.

Sector-specific research shows the fintech sector remained the most popular among investors, attracting 39.7 per cent of total funds raised on the continent.  Other spaces, such as e-health, transport and logistics are garnering ever-more attention and funding.

Yet, Disrupt Africa numbers are smaller than what WeeTracker had reported even though the trajectory is in the same direction.

According to numbers compiled in WeeTracker’s Venture Investments Report 2018, US$726 million was invested across 458 deals in African startups. That is a 300% gigantic leap in the total funding amount and over 127% increase in the number of deals as compared to 2017.

Fintech has remained the most funded sector in the continent.