Apple Analysis Reveals That Consumers Want Larger Displays, Cheaper Smartphones [Charts]

Apple determined that screen size and price were the reasons for the iPhone's slowed growth rate, according to internal documents that have surfaced in the company's new trial with Samsung.



This chart shows that iPhone Y/Y unit growth has slowed from 109% to just 8% in FY '13 Q3.



Another slide asks 'So what is going on?'. Factors are separated into Consumers, Carriers, and Competitors.

Consumers:
● Strongest demand coming from less expensive & larger screen smartphones.

Carriers:
Carriers have strong interest in capping iPhone due to one or more factors...
● High share
● Subsidy premium
● "Unfriendly" policies
● Lack of alignment

Competitors:
● Competitors have drastically improved their hardware and in some cases their ecosystems.
● Spending "obscene" amounts of money on advertising and/or carrier/channel to gain traction.



Finally, the last slide declares that "Consumers want what we don't have". From CY'11 to CY'12 the smartphone market grew 228M units. Apple determined that the growth either came from devices under $300 or from devices over $300 that have a display larger than 4-inches, nether of which Apple had a product offering for.

Apple is widely rumored to be releasing a larger 4.7-inch and possibly 5.5-inch smartphone later this year. Please follow iClarified on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, or RSS for updates.

[via Re/code]