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iPhone Sales Drop, and Apple’s 13-Year Surge Ebbs

nytimes.com

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Re: iPhone Sales Drop, and Apple’s 13-Year Surge Ebbs

#321

Post by danieltiIlett »

serge2k wrote: post #303
rqebmm wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some combination of wearables, AR/VR, IoT, and consumer 3D printing. The thing is a) those are all a few years out, b) they're interconnected. VR will happen first because it's got an obvious path to a large consumer base. That will lay groundwork for AR, which is probably the actual Next Big Thing. Wearables/IoT/3D printing are really an extension of the miniaturization/customization of longstanding technologies, bu…

I really don't see 3d printing going anywhere. What are you really going to print?

Dildos, which will be thrown away in post-orgasmal shame and reprinted a day later

Re: iPhone Sales Drop, and Apple’s 13-Year Surge Ebbs

#322

Post by galistoca »

digi_owl wrote: post #297
orbitur wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

3D Touch should've replaced long press. I hate that I have to wait, I don't care that it's 0.4 of a second. A long press is a concession to the fact that there's no physical button, and 3D Touch should've solved this problem. But instead I end up triggering a 3D Touch when I want to delete an app.

What surprises me is that they didn't try to use it to make the keyboard more "physical". If the OSK can distinguish a finger resting from a finger pressing, then you get closer to that of a physical keyboard. Especially if the resting part can be tied in with the vibration engine to give a slight nudge to indicate edges of keys, or some such.

That sounds like emulating for the sake of emulating. I'm sure even you would hate it if you actually saw it in production. Typing on keyboard is shitty as it is. By making it force touch, it will be much slower to finish a sentence. When people use physical keyboards their fingers are by default resting on the keys. When most users type on mobile, they're not. It's easier to NOT rest fingers on the keys than resting for so many reasons, such as you not being able to see the keys if your finger is covering them.

Re: iPhone Sales Drop, and Apple’s 13-Year Surge Ebbs

#323

Post by scholia »

Aelinsaar wrote: post #191
scholia wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More competitive pricing would reduce margins. Apple has chosen to pursue high margins and high profits rather than market share. That's how it accumulated roughly $200 billion in cash.

Exactly. Does that leave them with the flexibility to fundamentally change their business model to narrower margins?

In theory, yes, but Apple sells premium products at premium prices and many people actually like paying more.

There's inevitably a show-off element to it, but I think there's psychological research to show that people appreciate products more when they pay more for them. (But I can't find any evidence from a quick google....)

Re: iPhone Sales Drop, and Apple’s 13-Year Surge Ebbs

#324

Post by encoderer »

hiddencost wrote: post #266
reddytowns wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not necessarily. If a company makes a profit, then theoretically so do your shares, whether in terms of share price increase or dividends.

So, actually, fun fact, this is false! The stock price doesn't just reflect the amount of money the company has. The stock price reflects the "fully loaded" expected value of that stock. That means it prices in ALL expectations. If the company you buy performs exactly as expected, then you don't actually make any money because you paid the price that reflected those expectations, so whatever dividends the company iss…

I think you're mis-applying the theory here and confusing Return on Risk? No matter what you say, if I buy a stock that expects to earn dividends, and I do earn those dividends, and I've realized a 5% dividend yield, I certainly have made a profit. Now, whether I'm getting return on risk is another thing and very well the answer may be no.

Re: iPhone Sales Drop, and Apple’s 13-Year Surge Ebbs

#325

Post by marshray »

sumedh wrote: post #309
ericabiz wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

2-3 years is average, depending on how much you use your phone. Battery replacements are cheap (we charge $49 for the 5 series right now) and quick to do. Easiest way to know you need a battery replacement: Your phone gets to 40% or 20% and suddenly just dies on you. That means at least one cell in your battery is dead, and it's time to replace the whole battery. Also, if your screen is edging up on the left side but…

> don't realize what's happening Wait, why cant the OS tell the user that something is wrong with the battery.

What would the user do about it? The battery is officially non-replaceable.

Re: iPhone Sales Drop, and Apple’s 13-Year Surge Ebbs

#326

Post by scholia »

dragontamer wrote: post #180
madelinecameron wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That's a "Jade" PC. High-end PCs at that time were Compaq computers. Not cheap knockoffs that were made by no-name brands. The Compaq 386 had a launch price of $6500 to $10,000+ http://www.nytimes.com/1988/01/10/business/the-executive-com... The "Jade" PC you see in that image is probably more comparable to "Gateway" brand now-a-days. Computers are a hell-of-a-lot cheaper today than in the past. EDIT: I looked it up,…

You can still build your own PC today ;-)

Compaq's pricing was clever. If you bought one, everyone knew you bought it because it was better, not because it was cheaper than the IBM model. (And it was better because Compaq was shipping 386 machines when the IBM PC AT still had a crappy 286.)

Re: iPhone Sales Drop, and Apple’s 13-Year Surge Ebbs

#327

Post by marshray »

hiddencost wrote: post #266
reddytowns wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not necessarily. If a company makes a profit, then theoretically so do your shares, whether in terms of share price increase or dividends.

So, actually, fun fact, this is false! The stock price doesn't just reflect the amount of money the company has. The stock price reflects the "fully loaded" expected value of that stock. That means it prices in ALL expectations. If the company you buy performs exactly as expected, then you don't actually make any money because you paid the price that reflected those expectations, so whatever dividends the company iss…

Well there's also the effect that new money flowing into the stock market as a whole ends up chasing a finite set of stocks thus tending to raise prices.

Re: iPhone Sales Drop, and Apple’s 13-Year Surge Ebbs

#328

Post by qaq »

kpil wrote: post #205
qaq wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They can buy any +/- any bank

I think it's more cost effective to start a new bank. But why would they. It's a lot of trouble, and being a bank gives you the right to lend in money from the public. It's still possible to provide payment services without being a bank. I think they could more or less buy VISA and pay in cash, and that makes more sense if you want to make money on retail payments.

I am not advocating that Apple needs to buy a bank, just noting that they have resources to buy pretty much any bank.

Re: iPhone Sales Drop, and Apple’s 13-Year Surge Ebbs

#329

Post by madeofpalk »

devsquid wrote: post #315
dzhiurgis wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that you can load anything outside App store means a lot for advanced users. And I am not talking from OSS perspective. Besides, where have you seen OSS services? It doesn't even make sense.

Yea exactly its one of the reasons why I love Android so much. Also the argument that Android isn't actually OSS argument is dumb. If it was closed source how have other companies forked it and successfully released their own variants? It doesn't make sense.

"Forked it and successfully released their own variants" is a stretch (Amazon Fire Phone), especially when Google specifically prohibits vendors that get access to Google Play to fork Android.

Re: iPhone Sales Drop, and Apple’s 13-Year Surge Ebbs

#330

Post by studentrob »

bduerst wrote: post #240
allisthemoist wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a company that has a huge grip on higher end hardware sales, I definitely think they will stay in the space. That being said, product innovation certainly needs to happen for them to retain their dominance.

Depends. They're the quality leader of the hardware market, but that means they'll need to be present in new hardware markets. This includes VR/AR, less someone else gets to the the brand reputation throne first (like HTC or Microsoft).

> This includes VR/AR, less someone else gets to the the brand reputation throne first (like HTC or Microsoft).

I think HTC's got it for at least a year. It may continue longer. They'd need to do something wrong to lose the lead. MS Hololens is too expensive at the moment to get much reach. And I could make many comments about how Oculus/FB messed up a bit recently. However, I think everyone, including HTC, hopes that Oculus finds its stride again. More competition is better for everyone and will advance VR tech and the market reach faster. Gates and Jobs are on record saying Microsoft, Apple, and the world wouldn't have been as good without each other.

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