The mobile phone industry has never been bigger or more talked about than it is just now. With the number of global mobile users expected to pass a staggering 5 billion in 2019, the battle to stay on top is fierce, while the rewards are incredible.
Is Apple currently winning this battle? They have been in the news a lot lately, as have Huawei, but what is the overall effect of the good and bad publicity that we have seen in the news? Why does it feel as though Apple is boasting a lot about their security right now?
IMAGE: PEXELS
What Does The Share Price Tell Us?
One of the biggest indicators of how well a company is doing is to be found in their share price. Apple has long been regarded as one of the world’s premier stocks. Indeed, it was calculated in early 2019 that if you had spent $100 on Apple shares in 2002 it would now be worth more than 95 times its original value.
If we look at the latest figures at the time of writing, we can see that AAPL stock was on a downward trend in late 2018 but started 2019 more positively, recovering a degree of the value that it lost in the previous months. What are the factors behind this volatility?
Recent reports by Gartner suggest that both Apple and Samsung are losing ground to Chinese manufacturer Huawei. This has largely been attributed to the high price of their phones. Apple lost 2% of the market share in the last quarter, with their worst sales decline since early 2016. Clearly, they need to do something to convince users to buy Apple devices again.
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What Has Been In The News?
Apart from the price aspect, what has been in the news that shows us which phone companies are most likely to come out ahead? Well, Apple hit the headlines when they put a massive billboard outside the CES 2019 event, bragging about their cybersecurity policies.
“What happens on your iPhone, stays on your iPhone” was the message that visitors to the CES in Las Vegas saw. Many industry analysts took this as a slight on its rivals. It was just the latest in a series of initiatives in which Apple bosses appear to be pushing security matters to the front of the debate about which phone is best.
Given that Huawei looks to be winning the battle on price, it is a smart move for Apple to focus on other areas. Of course, security is a sore point for the Chinese company, with news headlines around the world discussing the allegations of Chinese state spying that have damaged Huawei.
What Does The Future Hold?
We can expect Apple to place even more emphasis on their security policies in the near future. This is an area where they appear to feel confident that they can win the battle to claim back the customers who have gone elsewhere because of price issues.
If they can convince enough people that their security and privacy is more important than the price difference, it seems likely that they will begin to show improved sales figures from now on.
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