Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

471–480 of 551 posts

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

#471

Post by a_c_s »

mdorazio wrote: post #465
coldtea wrote: post #340

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Out of curiosity, in what way do you feel TouchID makes your phone more secure than just a password? Someone could steal a glass you've touched along with your phone and unlock it with a bit of effort. Well, quite a lot more effort. I don't want my data/photos/etc to fell pray to a phone thief -- or a guy that finds the phone after I dropped in a cafe. And Touch ID does that fine. The "fingerprint on glass" scenari…

It's actually less effort, though. It's basically impossible at this point to brute force an iPhone password, and even if you use TouchID a thief could theoretically still try and break in using the backup numeric password. Also it's been shown that depending on how you use your phone, usable fingerprints can be lifted right off the screen (you touch it all the time after all), so someone who is after your data doesn…

TouchID isn't to make you a better international spy, but rather to deal with realistic threats.

The average person is much more likely to have their password stolen by somebody watching them enter it over and over every time they look at their phone than somebody who is going to go through the trouble to replicate fingerprints.

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

#472

Post by unprepare »

ben1040 wrote: post #302
smackfu wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That program is really only appealing to the people who upgrade their phone ever year, which has got to be a small part of the market. Lucrative to Apple, I'm sure.

Even if you don't upgrade every year, it's still a 24 month installment loan at 0% interest. Since the phone is unlocked and the financing is not tied to a carrier, you're also free to switch carriers without having to buy the financing out.

Meaning you could actually pay effectively less, if you put 750$ in a savings account you'd earn an interest rate - paying off your 0% loan while earning some small percentage on the money you woudlve otherwise paid up front.

Obviously it would be a very small amount, but still overall superior to paying cash, definitely better than using credit.

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

#473

Post by ericabiz »

lttlrck wrote: post #438
ericabiz wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All depends on the cost of parts. Part cost is very low right now...I advise people to get it fixed ASAP if they have the money! You never know what it will do--part cost bounces around like the stock market. Last year it bounced really high there for a bit, and now it's come back down. The backlight, LCD, digitizer (touch "web"), and top glass are all one piece. They come bonded from the factory. I never recommend g…

Do you calibrate the screen because I have seen uncalibrated repairs and the image quality is terrible. Though that could also be caused by bum screens.

Heh, whenever I hear "calibrate the screen" I assume you either work at an Apple Store or have been to one recently, as that seems to be their favorite line.

Calibration is only necessary on a glass-only repair; it realigns the digitizer "touch web" with the top glass that you're actually touching. That's why we don't perform nor recommend glass-only repairs.

When we repair a screen, we test every part of the digitizer before giving it back to the customer. We type on the keyboard, open apps, etc. If we find a dead spot, we replace it on-site. If by chance there's something we missed on our test, that's why our warranty exists.

If a customer finds a dead spot or the digitizer starts glitching, that's covered under our warranty. And that's why I recommend you find a shop with a good warranty. Most of them don't test as thoroughly as we do, but even with testing, a small percentage of digitizers will still have issues a few days to a few weeks after the repair. A warranty will get you a no-hassle replacement as long as you haven't cracked the screen.

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

#474

Post by ericabiz »

TorKlingberg wrote: post #414
ericabiz wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, Apple doesn't sell parts, though it would be nice if they did. The main way screens appear in the repair business is from companies in China that buy back screens with broken glass but functional LCD. They then replace the glass with new glass. Most of the screen is OEM, but not the top glass. They then ship these to repair shops and distributors, who use them to replace screens. That's why I mentioned in a previ…

Thank you for all the information. This explains the volatile prices: it depends on the supply of broken screens. I assume when you replace a display assembly, you sell the old one?

Yes, many places will buy them. They pay more if the LCD is still intact because they're easier to refurbish.

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

#475

Post by tptacek »

reddytowns wrote: post #396
hiddencost wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 concede, however what I was mainly getting at was that this meme of "you only make money when the company grows" is also false. I believe you would agree with me that a company could exceed expectations while at the same time not growing (by giving out a bigger dividend, or buying up its own shares with its profits).

I'm not saying that you only make money when the company grows. Obviously, you can make money from a consistent dividend, as well.

But that's not really what you're doing when you invest in an S&P index fund, right?

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

#476

Post by jdhawk »

ericabiz wrote: post #4

I run a repair shop. We've repaired over 3,000 Apple devices for customers. We are always chatting with our customers, so we get a ton of feedback from them about what they're doing with their phones. We hear a few things consistently: 1) Providers have switched from "free upgrades every 2 years" to a plan cost and a monthly phone cost, so people now really know how much their phone costs--and many would rather save…

Dont worry, Apple will force the upgrade the same way they always have. Make the next version of iOS so freaking slow on older devices that its unbearable to use. People that stay on iOS[789] will eventually be forced to upgrade in order to get their necessary app updates.

My poor iPad 2 is so slow on iOS9 that its unbearable to use for any length of time. A5's are unbearable, A6's are not far behind.

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

#477

Post by ant6n »

cududa wrote: post #53
fla wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gaming console ?

Funny enough, most VR projection models use gaming consoles as the low point of estimating units a few years from now. I want to bet on sunglass sized AR, but it seems like we'll need some material science revolutions to shrink down the requisite hardware to have the kind of useful experience is imagine

It's more like power and heat that are the problem, not size. Chips are pretty small.

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

#479

Post by dave_sullivan »

ericabiz wrote: post #156
revelation wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where do you source parts from? Does Apple sell these like a car manufacturer would? The whole electronics repair business seems rather immature and shady compared to something like car repair. For a car make, you can easily get the software manufacturers give to repair shops which has all sorts of exploded assembly views, instructions and part lists.

No, Apple doesn't sell parts, though it would be nice if they did. The main way screens appear in the repair business is from companies in China that buy back screens with broken glass but functional LCD. They then replace the glass with new glass. Most of the screen is OEM, but not the top glass. They then ship these to repair shops and distributors, who use them to replace screens. That's why I mentioned in a previ…

> The main way screens appear in the repair business is from companies in China that buy back screens with broken glass but functional LCD.

That's really interesting. I had assumed these were being manufactured somewhere to fit into apple devices, but instead there're huge operations that are buying tons of broken screens and essentially refurbishing them? Is that for legal reasons or cost reasons or other?

I'm curious: what does the supply chain look like?

A) Person breaks their screen, how much do they get from one of those shops that buy broken phones? Does that firm then break it down and sell the parts? Like a smart phone chop shop?

B) If so, who are they selling to? Surely not the refurb factories themselves, the factories wouldn't want to deal with that many individual people. So are people aggregating these and then selling in bulk to manufacturers? Any idea on the pricing around that? Does there seem to be a dominant player in the market or are there many people doing this?

C) After refurb, how much does the new screen then go for? You mentioned it's like a market--what's the range been in the last few years vs today?

And what about Android?

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

#480

Post by oddevan »

rtpg wrote: post #375
bluthru wrote: post #334

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel Apple would be better as a private company but it's too late at this point.

Is there a way for a company like Apple to secretly buy back stock? I feel like at one point it would show up in the books...

Don't know about secretly (they could probably set up a stealth LLC and file it under "strategic investment"), but they've had a stock buyback program for a while.
Post reply on HN