Apple to slice iPhone production 10% due to sluggish sales • Hacker News Board

Re: Apple to slice iPhone production 10% due to sluggish sales

#361

Post by neotek » Sat, Dec 31, 2016, 3:05 PM UTC

_Codemonkeyism wrote: post #216

jblow wrote: post #93

Usually I have upgraded, but I currently have no intention of buying an iPhone 7 or later, unless they fix something! For me it's a double whammy. I don't like the lack of headphone jack, and whereas I feel like I could manage grumpily ... for me it kills the excitement of buying the new device, and I think that is important. (My standard listening headphones are Etymotic ER-4Ps; there is no way I am going to downgra…

Removing the headphone jack is just to get more money and control. First by selling dongles. Second after many people moved to new headphones they will introduce a license program for headphone vendors "Built for Apple" which costs say 10% of the headphone. Other headphones will no longer work (see what Sony did with PS4 bluetooth headphones).

Apple made $230 BILLION in revenue last year, of which less than one fifth of one percent came from MFI licensing fees.

Removing the headphone jack had absolutely nothing to do with selling dongles and everything to do with Apple doing what it always does: seeing which way the wind is blowing and dragging everyone kicking and screaming into their vision of the future.

They did the exact same thing with the floppy drive and optical drive, they're now doing the same thing with USB and the headphone jack, and within five years you can be sure that every single one of their competitors will have made the same decision.

Re: Apple to slice iPhone production 10% due to sluggish sales

#362

Post by neotek » Sat, Dec 31, 2016, 3:11 PM UTC

georgyo wrote: post #235

AdeptusAquinas wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After buying a recent macbook (not the touch bar version, ugh) I suspect the real reason is fashion related. One port is more sleek, more stylish than two or three ports. Functionality sacrificed in the name of a sleeker look...well, I appreciate the intent, even as I recognise I am not the target audience.

This could be true, but they choose to stick with the lightning connector. Which gives them licencing rights. Getting money from licencing is the only reason I can see for them having only the lightning connector. They could have switched to USB-C, became standard, and then switched to one port. Then at least the head phones you but would also work on your shiny new MacBook.

Switching to USB-C on the iPhone would have been a hugely shitty decision given their ultimate goal is clearly to build a phone without any ports at all within a few years.

Consider what would happen in that case: right now there are hundreds of millions of iPhone accessories out there that rely on the Lightning port - everything from headphones to cars to health devices and more. If Apple removed the Lightning port all of those accessories would become obsolete overnight and people would be up in arms about it (just look at the removal of the headphone jack and the storm in a teacup that became.) Manufacturers would bring out USB-C accessories for the iPhone, people would buy them to replace their Lightning accessories, the furore would die down and things would go back to normal, and then boom - Apple removes the USB-C port too.

In the space of a few years they'd have fucked over hundreds of millions of people who wasted money on replacing their accessories and the outrage would be overwhelming. People would be accusing Apple of doing it on purpose just to sell more accessories (which is what they're accusing Apple of right now because of the aforementioned removal of the headphone jack) when in reality Apple has been telegraphing the transition to wireless for a while now.

Re: Apple to slice iPhone production 10% due to sluggish sales

#363

Post by neotek » Sat, Dec 31, 2016, 3:14 PM UTC

owly wrote: post #304

georgyo wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This could be true, but they choose to stick with the lightning connector. Which gives them licencing rights. Getting money from licencing is the only reason I can see for them having only the lightning connector. They could have switched to USB-C, became standard, and then switched to one port. Then at least the head phones you but would also work on your shiny new MacBook.

Exactly. Users can't even use their lightning headphones on a new Mac. The move to remove was a mistake, but there is no going back now. That would be admitting to a design flaw.

Not only was it not a mistake, ten years from now people will refer to the outrage over the removal of the headphone jack in the same way we currently refer to the outrage over the removal of the floppy drive.

Re: Apple to slice iPhone production 10% due to sluggish sales

#364

Post by gsteinb88 » Sat, Dec 31, 2016, 3:40 PM UTC

jsz0 wrote: post #172

brightball wrote: post #110

Apple's losing its mojo in a slow steady drip and there's going to be more of this if they don't get it together soon. Apple used to be synonymous with premium equipment an a "It Just Works" experience. It made it really, really easy to just get the Apple version of anything knowing it was going to be good. My parents need equipment, I get them an iMac, an Airport Extreme, iPhone, iPad, etc...knowing it's all just go…

> Let's not forget using $30 USB cords to charge your phone/mouse. Both devices come with a Lighting cable, an Apple first party Lighting cable costs $20 not $30, and third party Lighting cables cost as little as $5.

I paid $12 on Amazon for 6 Travalo lightning cables on Amazon and I couldn't be happier with them. Lightning interface is legit (no notifications about unsupported lightning connector) and they're more robust than the official Apple cables.

Re: Apple to slice iPhone production 10% due to sluggish sales

#365

Post by kayoone » Sat, Dec 31, 2016, 3:44 PM UTC

josteink wrote: post #306

rimantas wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Believe or not only few care about that lousy jack. Most will use earbuds that come with the phone, others will permanently have dongle attached to their headphones. And those who go AirPods way will forget jack ever existed.

> those who go AirPods way will forget jack ever existed I'm pretty sure that this market segment, while surely it exists, will never overlap with those who care about good sound quality and a good music listening experience. In other words: they're leaving significant market segments behind.

Are you implying there are no good Bluetooth headphones ? A2DP and aptx solved those issues long ago.

Re: Apple to slice iPhone production 10% due to sluggish sales

#366

Post by Girlang » Sat, Dec 31, 2016, 3:50 PM UTC

doomlaser wrote: post #228

saurik wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They need to get rid of 3D touch, get rid of double-tap one-hand accessibility mode whatever it's called, get rid of weird swipes from the edge, fix the horrible inconsistencies in the way autocorrect works... This is the same bullshit Apple has been doing with Mac OS X. I'm typing away in the terminal, doing something extremely productive, and suddenly my UI locks up for a second and I realize "shit, I must have a…

It's one of the critical flaws of Apple's modern design philosophy: Having a right mouse button would be too complicated, but hiding layers of complicated functionality through opaque multi-finger gestures, taps, and keyboard modifiers is A-OK. And it's absolutely true that when Apple adds a new feature, it must have an accompanying slow animation tween to sell it. Frustrating.

Switch to Windows. I did and I'm 100% happy

Re: Apple to slice iPhone production 10% due to sluggish sales

#367

Post by Girlang » Sat, Dec 31, 2016, 3:52 PM UTC

legodt wrote: post #263

ihuman wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just keep mine connected to my headphones, since I use them more with my iPhone than a computer. Also someone made a cool keychain to attach it to if that works better for you. [1] > expensive spare dongles They're only $10 USD. [1] https://uncourage.com/

Why are people so desperate to defend this clearly user hostile move? A dongle is a poor user experience and continues to degrade user experience over time. The fact that there was a market demand for a "cool" keychain shows how unnecessary the removal of the jack was. Believe it or not, people enjoy using things without unnecessary accessories that you have to keep track of and swap around

Because Tim __PAYS__ people to come here and Astroturf.

Re: Apple to slice iPhone production 10% due to sluggish sales

#368

Post by mustacheemperor » Sat, Dec 31, 2016, 3:54 PM UTC

tdkl wrote: post #268

legodt wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>iTunes is slowly degrading That is incredibly generous considering the past decade of itunes, especially for Windows users. So much bad code, legacy cruft, and inconsistent UI decisions

I'm a Windows user and love iTunes. There's just isn't any piece of software that lets me sync all my selected playlists with a single click via Wifi to Android (iSyncr app) reliably. I can also use a remote to navigate (Retune app) and access whole library. Too bad there's no other contenders on Linux as well, there's a million players, but no syncing because apparently it makes more sense in 2016 to sync a song wit…

Given the thread, I think the fact that your solution is based around an android phone is telling.

Re: Apple to slice iPhone production 10% due to sluggish sales

#369

Post by sbuk » Sat, Dec 31, 2016, 3:57 PM UTC

Not one person has thought that this may be due to production of the next iPhone beginning. Cook is a logistics guy and under him, Apple keep inventory to a minimum. Add to the the fact that the quarter immediately following Christmas is always sluggish. This looks like a normal shift in production priorities.

Re: Apple to slice iPhone production 10% due to sluggish sales

#370

Post by matheweis » Sat, Dec 31, 2016, 4:12 PM UTC

throwanem wrote: post #342

reggplant wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my experience, the amplification that this adapter provides is not enough for larger headphones.

Larger headphones like what? Impedance should matter there, not size, and it would surprise me to learn that there are high-Ω headphones that an iPhone can drive effectively, but the adapter can't.

A sysadmin I work who has had Apple-everything for years (iMac, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, iPhone, Apple Watch...) with walked in last week without his Apple Watch.

Asking him about it, he pulled out a new Pixel and said it was for op's very reason. In particular he noted that the pixel had a much better DAC than any one iPhone he'd ever had - and in particular that it could drive all of his higher end headphones. He also mentioned that the new iThing adapter has it own DAC inside the adapter... it's apparently powered by the lightning port with its own drivers - and that he had tried it out anyway but found it incapable of properly driving any of his nicer headphones.