What Is Apple's "Next iPhone"?

LONDON, ENGLAND - OCTOBER 26:General view of the Apple IPhone XR during the Covent Garden re-opening and iPhone XR launch at Apple store, Covent Garden on October 26, 2018 in London, England.
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Apple (AAPL, $207.74) hit all-time highs last fall as investors held their collective breath to see whether the iPhone XS and iPhone XR would kickstart stalled iPhone sales.

They didn’t.

Smartphone sales are in decline globally, and Apple is far from immune. On Nov. 1, the company took the step of announcing it would no longer report unit sales of iPhones. Several experts believed it was because iPhone sales were flat or in decline, prompting a decline in Apple stock.

Something’s changing, and it’s not good news for the first American company to hit $1 trillion in market value. In January, Apple reported its first holiday-quarter revenue decline since 2001 on the back of a 15% year-over-year iPhone revenue slide. Sales dipped again in Q2. The company is discounting iPhones in an attempt to boost sales. Adding to investor unease, at the end of June, long-time design chief (and Steve Jobs collaborator) Jony Ive announced he was leaving Apple.

The “next iPhone” used to be a reference to other companies with products that had the potential to change the face of technology and send shares soaring to the moon. But now, Apple is in search of its own “next iPhone” to deal with the very real slump in its transformative smartphone.

So, what is Apple’s next iPhone – or does such a thing even exist? We’ll look at current Apple products, as well as other future launches that have a chance of powering AAPL stock over the next decade, to determine whether any of them have the potential to replicate the juggernaut smartphone’s success.

Disclaimer

Data is as of July 28.

Brad Moon
Contributing Writer, Kiplinger.com

Brad Moon is a tech industry veteran who contributes to a range of publications including Forbes, InvestorPlace and MSN Money and is an original member of the award-winning GeekDad blog. Over the past decade, he has also written about technology for Wired, Gizmodo, Shaw Media, About.com, The Winnipeg Free Press and others.