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Apple’s Social Network

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Re: Apple’s Social Network

#31

Post by xfitm3 »

ethagknight wrote: post #24
ygra wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And manage all my regularly scheduled bills like utilities, rent or mortgages. I would love for a trusted intermediary to handle these things. Isn't that far easier to set up scheduled payments with your bank or allow the company to use direct withdrawal?

For the payment itself, yes, if you want it all automated. Automated payments are to the biller’s enormous benefit (ahem cable company...) To manage or keep un-automated or see reports or change features, it currently requires a separate app, login, UI, or other legacy portals. It’s annoying. Apple could streamline it, and remove a layer of complexity while taking over the transaction (and gain data gold mines)

I rarely make changes so I don’t see the value here. I have every recurring bill setup to auto pay. If I had to manually pay bills I would go insane.

Re: Apple’s Social Network

#32

Post by alehul »

ethagknight wrote: post #24
ygra wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And manage all my regularly scheduled bills like utilities, rent or mortgages. I would love for a trusted intermediary to handle these things. Isn't that far easier to set up scheduled payments with your bank or allow the company to use direct withdrawal?

For the payment itself, yes, if you want it all automated. Automated payments are to the biller’s enormous benefit (ahem cable company...) To manage or keep un-automated or see reports or change features, it currently requires a separate app, login, UI, or other legacy portals. It’s annoying. Apple could streamline it, and remove a layer of complexity while taking over the transaction (and gain data gold mines)

> Apple could streamline it, and remove a layer of complexity while taking over the transaction (and gain data gold mines)

While I strongly agree with your top-level comment, and I think Apple's brand is very valuable, a lot of that is from a trustworthy, privacy standpoint. Small nitpick, but I think on the "data gold mines" point, any area where collecting data is paramount is an area that Apple should not enter to maintain that brand value (i.e. their Maps not collecting data as much as Google's is a real pitfall).

The areas you listed above are largely possible without collecting that much data, which may be the exact reason Apple should pursue them. :)

Re: Apple’s Social Network

#33

Post by oflannabhra »

I appreciate that Ben took the time to read between the lines of what Apple has been saying, to tease out how Apple is thinking about Apple. It's clear that's why he has a successful business.

This article made me stop and think about Apple's future, and to be honest, the future of computing. I think it is clear that in 10 years mobile computing has reached maturity (which is astounding). There is no broad use-case advantage that iOS has over Android (ie, I can communicate on both of them, I can get directions on both, etc).

It seems as if we have reached a valley of sorts, in which the use-cases and potential businesses that can be built on top of a computing platform that is always connected, always with us are mostly tilled ground. Discovering and inventing new ones takes an enormous amount of effort and ingenuity. It would be easy to think that most of the disruption has already happened.

However, what surprises me is that Apple is doubling down on performance. The processing capability of iPhones continues to rise, even when we see that the software that uses that capability has diminishing returns.

My best guess is that Apple is playing the long game, and that they see the investments that they are making in performance will pay off greatly in the coming years, because suddenly our phone will be more powerful than our desktop. And, while it is easy to scoff at that as being unnecessary, I think it actually will begin to unlock new use-cases that will lead us out of the current "valley of diminishing returns."

The obvious candidate here is AR, but I think it actually is broader than that. It is clear that Apple is moving towards a system in which the iPhone is a computational Sun, around which multiple accessories "orbit". I think such a system, taken into consideration along with cloud computing is actually incredibly exciting, and I think (as much as this audience might dislike it) that desktops and laptops truly are the current past.

Re: Apple’s Social Network

#34

Post by gwright »

qwerty456127 wrote: post #26

> Apple Inc. shares had their worst day since 2014 amid concerns that growth in its powerhouse product, the iPhone, is slowing. In the fiscal fourth quarter, Apple said iPhone unit sales barely grew from a year earlier Why do sales always need to grow, why sustaining is not enough? Also wouldn't it be a good idea to change the focus product periodically? I.e. we've sold so much iPhones that everybody who ever wanted…

They don't "have to" always grow, but stock prices are effectively predictions on future growth. When the prediction changes you see that reflected immediately in the stock price. Of course predictions change all the time and so do stock prices. If your prediction turns out to be more accurate than other predictions you win (assuming you invested some money based on your prediction).

Re: Apple’s Social Network

#35

Post by dwighttk »

qwerty456127 wrote: post #26

> Apple Inc. shares had their worst day since 2014 amid concerns that growth in its powerhouse product, the iPhone, is slowing. In the fiscal fourth quarter, Apple said iPhone unit sales barely grew from a year earlier Why do sales always need to grow, why sustaining is not enough? Also wouldn't it be a good idea to change the focus product periodically? I.e. we've sold so much iPhones that everybody who ever wanted…

People hold stock because they think it will be worth more in the future. Sustaining would be enough if everyone else is shrinking, but not if there is anywhere else that is growing.

Re: Apple’s Social Network

#36

Post by oflannabhra »

avar wrote: post #30

> Apple said it would stop providing unit sales for iPhones, iPads, and Macs in fiscal 2019, a step toward becoming more of a services business. While some pundits praised the move as a way to highlight a potent new business model, many analysts complained it was an attempt to hide the pain of a stagnant smartphone market. Can companies just pull this sort of "yeah those numbers look bad, so we're not publishing them…

what regulation forces a company to report how much it sells of X? Most regulation requires reporting around revenue, not units.

As the article notes, Apple was unique in reporting unit sales at all.

Re: Apple’s Social Network

#37

Post by ctdonath »

wiremine wrote: post #11
empath75 wrote: post #5

It seems like apple can continue to grow ‘unit sales’ by introducing new products like the watch at a regular pace.

Came here to make this exact point. Of course, the iPhone was a unique product in terms of how it changed the trajectory of Apple's fortunes, and likely can't be replicated. It's dominated 24% of the company's history. (10 years between 2007 and 2017; Apple was founded in 1976) If iPhone sales are flat, goosing the price makes sense, but it isn't the future of the company. To be honest, as a technologist, I'm sort of…

Look for the next in flat computers. Seriously. AR/VR glasses might count.

Re: Apple’s Social Network

#38

Post by paulie_a »

redbergy wrote: post #10
paulie_a wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are not on top in phones or computers. Android devices outsell iPhones by a significant margin and for computers, apple basically owns an insignificant portion of the market.

So insignificant that it's one of the most valuable companies in the world on the back of those two product categories. By the way they are on top where it matters – profit and customer satisfaction.

I am not exactly sure what the market share is for iPhones, but Android is much larger. For computers, they are a tiny portion. If they cracked 10 percent I would be shocked. That is awesome they are profitable. But yes they do have an insignificant user base for computers. A reasonable but nowhere near dominating position for phones. Apple is always going to be a relatively small player regardless of market cap in the tech world. The last couple decades have proven that

Re: Apple’s Social Network

#39

Post by yuy910616 »

ethagknight wrote: post #19

I don’t think he mentioned it, but the easy way for Apple to grow to a $2T company is to get my household, a typical locked-in Apple household with an iPad or iPhone for every person and a computer for each adult and an AppleTV at every TV, to start paying for ever more services through those Apple devices. TV service. Ubiquitous internet service. Financial services like payments but grow into banking. manage all my…

I think an Apple (read integrated, user friendly) solution to internet of things could be more imminent, and interesting.

One of the draw back of the current solution for IoT is connecting different eco systems, such as GE light bulb to Amazon Echo. If apple have a solution that is elegant and 'just works', i'd be interested in that

Re: Apple’s Social Network

#40

Post by toyg »

empath75 wrote: post #5

It seems like apple can continue to grow ‘unit sales’ by introducing new products like the watch at a regular pace.

Or like the Earpods. I expect they will continue making discrete, targeted bets on wearables and other augmenters, while they keep poking at big ideas like the car.

I really don't see them going the "social" way. Cook does cloud software as well as Steve did (i.e. not very), he'd rather sell physical widgets and be a landlord on the resulting platforms.

I think this post reads too much into "Today at Apple", Apple are just reacting to Google building a similar network of physical locations for outreach and training last year, IMHO.

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