81–90 of 551 posts
I'm curious what other people think about the ecosystem as a catalyst, in particular Apple Pay. It seems to be that squeezing between iPhone owners and everyday purchases would be very lucrative.
Apple is not doomed, but I think they've taken their eyes off the ball a bit. Watch and iPad Pro are me-too products, and the switch to flat interfaces cost them a lot of differentiation IMHO. They've cheapened their brand and they don't seem to know what market they should really disrupt.
The iPad Pro is actually really awesome for artists. Pro + Pencil is a better experience than a Wacom Cintiq display, and it's a whole tablet for about the same price point, not just a display.
There is only so much hardware innovation, there are only so many people on the planet with $600 to spend on a mobile phone.
Apple should really move whole heartedly into services (as evidenced by revenue up 20%); build a gmail / dropbox competitor - stop thinking of itself as a consumer hardware maker, that era is over.
The era where cell phone companies offered phone subsidies as trade for a customer's long term commitment has ended. The impact this is having and will continue to have on smartphone sales is profound. It is much more likely that customers will upgrade their devices less frequently. We are already beginning to see the impact in Apple and Samsung earnings.
Apple is not doomed, but I think they've taken their eyes off the ball a bit. Watch and iPad Pro are me-too products, and the switch to flat interfaces cost them a lot of differentiation IMHO. They've cheapened their brand and they don't seem to know what market they should really disrupt.
The iPad Pro is actually really awesome for artists. Pro + Pencil is a better experience than a Wacom Cintiq display, and it's a whole tablet for about the same price point, not just a display.
Incredible that this is the first time in 13 years that Apple hasn't posted quarterly growth. I'm sure there will be lots of "Apple has lost its ability to innovate" articles based on this, but growing for the last ~52 straight quarters is insane. And I don't think one quarter without growth is enough evidence to conclude "Apple may be reaching the saturation point among potential customers in some countries" or "oth…
Apples customers barely complained on slow iPhones, and even less at their pricing level, where many knew apple margin is 40%. "Normal" company cannot withstand such high margins because of competition. Jobs achieved opposite where many people just said "oh screw it - it will cost me plenty, but I really want it!"
As of the lack of growth, I agree with you. It doesn't mean they are in serious troubles, just like a light caught doesn't mean you have a throat cancer. But the truth is that their products lost plenty with Job's departure.
Apple growth barely been done due to progress, but rather because of evolution! First mass-scale touch device, first mass-storage music device (I know, there been Palm and others; but ask 10 people - who ever heard of Palm?). Those were steps of evolution. Before you couldn't type with a finger. Before you couldn't store 160GB of your music in your pocket. Etc etc.
Now Apple is all about growth. There is no more evolution! There is faster CPU, if you really needed it. There is lighter phone, if you really needed it. There is faster GPU, if you really needed it. There is more fancy front-facing camera.... BUT none of those things are evolution; its just a progress. And that won't catapult Apple sales into previous levels. It simply can't.
Would we see the same "disappointing" sales numbers had Jobs still be here? Most likely not. By now we would steer the "i" devices with our eyeballs, and mind control that really works and is friendly to a customer would be just around the corner...
As of today under current management... it's funny, but my i device doesn't even have an FM radio built-in.
tl;dr it's hard to find lots of new people every quarter who can afford $600 phones.
Heh, I'm going to get myself the new CAT S60 phone (650€ at the moment, hope it goes down to 550-600 in two months). I already have an (aged) B15Q... but holy cow, a FLIR camera in a phone?! Only downsides: 1) no MediaTek CPU any more, only Qualcomm shit => no more easy rooting, firmware reflashing etc. 2) no dual-SIM :'(
Earlier quoted context omitted.
http://i.imgur.com/Lng3MQB.jpg I'd say that computers have come down in price.
I think the point they are making is that the 'high-end' / cutting-edge is the same price as it has been. You couldn't get $2,300 for a 33MHz machine now, just like you can't sell a Galaxy S1 for a $700.
$1500 in 1995 is about $2300 today. A $1500 computer today is ~35% cheaper than the "same price" computer from before.
Having been a gaming rig builder since around that time, high-end performance desktops have gotten way cheaper, with more realistic performance tiers to boot.
>Apple said it would raise its quarterly dividend 10 percent to 57 cents a share and increase the amount of stock it buys back to $175 billion. Surely that's the NYT's typo and they mean million with an M, right? EDIT: Not a typo, see mbrubeck's reply below.
https://www.apple.com/pr/library/2015/04/27Apple-Expands-Cap...
($175 million would be less than three hundredths of one percent of Apple's market cap.)
Apple is not doomed, but I think they've taken their eyes off the ball a bit. Watch and iPad Pro are me-too products, and the switch to flat interfaces cost them a lot of differentiation IMHO. They've cheapened their brand and they don't seem to know what market they should really disrupt.
The iPad Pro is actually really awesome for artists. Pro + Pencil is a better experience than a Wacom Cintiq display, and it's a whole tablet for about the same price point, not just a display.