Internal Apple slides explain why it thinks iPhone growth is slowing

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Despite posting 50+ million iPhone sales last quarter, Apple’s stock slid some 6%. As impressive as the numbers were, they still fell short of Wall Street expectations and reaffirmed fears of slowing growth. Apple’s YoY (year-over-year) iPhone growth is now down to just single digits.

The question is why? And Apple has a pretty good idea of what the answer is. According to some internal documents brought to light by the ongoing Samsung trial, the company attributes the slowing in iPhone growth to consumer want for larger, cheaper handsets and other factors…

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These slides are from an April 2013 meeting about Apple’s plans for 2014, submitted for evidence by Samsung and posted by Recode. Note in the slide directly above, Apple acknowledges that the strongest consumer demand is coming from less expensive and larger-screened handsets.

The other two factors listed here are also interesting. We’ve heard before that carriers aren’t very happy with the subsidy situation on iPhone, and Apple is known to be tough at the negotiation table. And how could the company not feel increasing pressure from competitors like Samsung?

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So what does all of this mean? At the very least it confirms that Apple is well-aware of the latest consumer trends—bigger, cheaper handsets and is working on some sort of response. In fact, rumor has it that the company is preparing to launch not one, but two larger iPhones later this year.

Stay tuned to iDB this week for more coverage on the Apple-Samsung trial. We’re only a week into it and have already seen some fascinating things surface like this Steve Jobs email from 2010 that talks about Apple’s future TV plans, and this little anecdote of how Slide to Unlock came to be.