Flop Secret
Mr. Cook, Bring Back Apple's Most Important Financial Metric
The company used to say how many iPhone customers returned, but it doesn't anymore. Pity.
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Permit me to nerd out on an essential barometer of Apple Inc.'s financial health that the company should revive, but likely won't.
That metric is the share of iPhone owners who buy one of Apple's latest models -- this year, the iPhone 8 line and the iPhone X. In the glory days of Apple's iPhone 6 sales boom beginning in late 2014, the company regularly disclosed the percentage of iPhone owners who made a repeat purchase. The figures spotlighted both how loyal iPhone fans were, and how much more sales growth was left.