> Let’s start with Apple’s decision that it will no longer be reporting the sales numbers of the iPhone. Given the flat annual sales of the iPhone since the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus launch, the story about rising numbers no longer belonged to the actual unit sales, it belongs to the increasing margins and increasing average selling price.

> If you’re going to sell success, you need bigger numbers. With the iPhone XS Plus clocking in at $1500 in some configurations the scope for larger margins and higher selling prices is pretty much priced out the market. Hiding the iPhone numbers means that the focus can be placed on the increasing revenue from software and services, rather than hardware revenue.

[How Apple defied expectations, launched a $1,000 iPhone and made it more profitable than ever](https://www.forbes.com/sites/ewanspence/2018/11/12/apple-iph...).

iPhone XS margins are around the same or slightly less than prior models. Here are numbers:

https://www.theinformation.com/articles/apples-iphone-prices...

If you have better numbers, share them. Your article has none.

This is correct. If Apple made a mistake (still a big if), it's building a phone that was simply too expensive.

The margin numbers that can be found are also for Apple as a company. Given the growth in services which should be high margin, this means the iPhones margins have been shrinking even with the price increases.

Even if the margins don't increase, by selling the same amount of more expensive phones, the profit will.

Looking at the iPhone SE, I wonder if it's relatively low profit and retail cost had a role to play in it's death. If I was Apple having that customer buy a 7 instead seems like a better deal for me.