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Apple’s Social Network

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Re: Apple’s Social Network

#141

Post by samatman »

ethagknight wrote: post #118
xfitm3 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Enabling recurring bill pay across the board is inviting overbilling, especially from services you no longer use. There's a reason companies incentivize you with a $5/mo 'green savings' to go autopay e-billing. That is fine if you don't care, some people's time is more valuable than others, but the potential savings gained from reviewing bills before paying is substantial.

This is true if one doesn’t practice basic accounting. Most people don’t, but without it, recurring bills are likely the least of one’s financial issues.

This costs me about an hour a month, which I spend noticing the bills I pay rather than paying them by hand.

Re: Apple’s Social Network

#142

Post by JadoJodo »

roymurdock wrote: post #138
ethagknight wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ha, I'm speaking from Apple's perspective thinking through how they could double in value. I don't think the current method of bills coming from everywhere with different payment requirements is all that great. If this new "middleman" provides value and protects me, then what's the problem? I wouldn't see direct integration with my apple device as a middleman but an endpoint. Furthermore, there are loads of whitelabe…

I don't fully understand your problem, or how Apple could provide a solution. Are you saying that the current system of having a checking/saving account, and setting up autopay/direct payments for your various bills (mortgage, utilities, gym, etc.) is cumbersome? And proposing that instead, Apple should add up all your bills and provide you with a $amount to pay each month, and you just pay that amount into your Appl…

> Apple should add up all your bills and provide you with a $amount to pay each month ...

This is my nightmare of where the subscription-culture is headed.

Re: Apple’s Social Network

#143

Post by cronix »

ethagknight wrote: post #114
moolcool wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Imagine if those “luxury” expenses were intermixed with a dozen other large, more legitimate bills? Apple could be processing $1000s a month per household, taking a hefty fee from some of them. That's what we need-- another middle man taking a even more off the top of every transaction.

Ha, I'm speaking from Apple's perspective thinking through how they could double in value. I don't think the current method of bills coming from everywhere with different payment requirements is all that great. If this new "middleman" provides value and protects me, then what's the problem? I wouldn't see direct integration with my apple device as a middleman but an endpoint. Furthermore, there are loads of whitelabe…

I think the single biggest thing they could do to get to $2T is build their own search engine, and ditch google completely. I think it's funny how some people (and Apple themselves) always say how Apple is so privacy conscious, while at the same time they made 9 Billion Dollars from Google by using Google as the default search engine in Safari (which most people don't change). So it seems they're willing to sell some of their users privacy for profit, and a very nice one at that.

If they just built their own search engine and used it as default, and it provided high quality un-manipulated results, I think even more would flock to Apple. Yes they'd take a (big) hit up front by losing out on all of that free Google money (estimated to be ~$12B in 2019), but then they could actually say with a straight face they were truly privacy advocates and won't sell their users data to Google via the Google Search Engine.

Saying how privacy conscious a company is, while literally making billions of dollars by indirectly selling a lot of their customers data, really rings hollow with me. Build a search engine. It's not as hard as building Apple Maps, and will do more good in many ways. Hell, even non-Apple people might use Apple search and fall in love with the results, bringing them into the Apple fold.

Re: Apple’s Social Network

#144

Post by briandear »

moolcool wrote: post #65
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…

>Imagine if those “luxury” expenses were intermixed with a dozen other large, more legitimate bills? Apple could be processing $1000s a month per household, taking a hefty fee from some of them. That's what we need-- another middle man taking a even more off the top of every transaction.

I happen to like “middle-men” — when it improves my experience and saves time. I don’t want to go to the refinery to buy gas any more than I want to spend a day driving to a dozen farms to pick up my weekly groceries. Middle-men are bad when they add no value. For example, subscriptions in the App Store — I love that because I can go to one place and cancel anything instantly without having to go through The NY Times or Angie’s List style phone “retention” representatives. For the business, it’s a win as well, I am more likely to subscribe to something when there is less onboarding and offboarding friction. With the App Store, I can, for example, change my credit card seamlessly for all of my subscriptions rather than trying to both remember and track down individual vendors. I also don’t trust some with my payment, or even contact information. That’s worth value to me. I would love it if I could use Apple Pay for everything, such as utility payments or insurance payments. Dealing with MetLife for example, is a nightmare. To set up automatic credit card payments, you have to fill out a 2-page paper form and mail or fax it to them.

Re: Apple’s Social Network

#145

Post by q-base »

cronix wrote: post #143
ethagknight wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ha, I'm speaking from Apple's perspective thinking through how they could double in value. I don't think the current method of bills coming from everywhere with different payment requirements is all that great. If this new "middleman" provides value and protects me, then what's the problem? I wouldn't see direct integration with my apple device as a middleman but an endpoint. Furthermore, there are loads of whitelabe…

I think the single biggest thing they could do to get to $2T is build their own search engine, and ditch google completely. I think it's funny how some people (and Apple themselves) always say how Apple is so privacy conscious, while at the same time they made 9 Billion Dollars from Google by using Google as the default search engine in Safari (which most people don't change). So it seems they're willing to sell some…

It may be easier than maps - which I am not sure about. But the attempt at maps will most likely have dampened their lust for a similar endeavor.

Re: Apple’s Social Network

#146

Post by PavlovsCat »

ethagknight wrote: post #114
moolcool wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Imagine if those “luxury” expenses were intermixed with a dozen other large, more legitimate bills? Apple could be processing $1000s a month per household, taking a hefty fee from some of them. That's what we need-- another middle man taking a even more off the top of every transaction.

Ha, I'm speaking from Apple's perspective thinking through how they could double in value. I don't think the current method of bills coming from everywhere with different payment requirements is all that great. If this new "middleman" provides value and protects me, then what's the problem? I wouldn't see direct integration with my apple device as a middleman but an endpoint. Furthermore, there are loads of whitelabe…

> I'm speaking from Apple's perspective

But why? It greatly puzzles me how many "consumers" now think in terms of "brands" and dream up and discuss strategies on behalf of them. Companies should concentrate on fleecing customers, and customers should concentrate on not getting fleeced.

Re: Apple’s Social Network

#147

Post by cmsj »

hbosch wrote: post #126
oflannabhra wrote: post #33

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 a…

> 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. Moving the goal posts on performance, beyond what is reasonably necessary, simply incentivizes and challenges developers to start making bigger and better app experiences. This is a passive form of ecos…

For historical context, the iOS/Android Snapchat quality thing was because on Android they would take a screenshot of the preview screen of the camera. As of earlier this year, they're actually using the proper API on Android and so things should look better there.

It doesn't particularly speak to the power of the devices, it was more a way to cope with the spectacular fragmentation of Android hardware.

Re: Apple’s Social Network

#148

Post by rootusrootus »

paulie_a wrote: post #38
redbergy wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 t…

Apple is absolutely dominating phones. When the competition is copying your design choices unnecessarily, you are essentially dominating the market.

That Android has dominated the $50-150 smartphone market is pretty meaningless. Those customers don't have much business value.

Re: Apple’s Social Network

#149

Post by 72deluxe »

ethagknight wrote: post #122
72deluxe wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have sufficient disposable income that you don't notice a $20 bill coming either out of your bank or credit card for an entire year? I would wager that you need to pay more attention to your finances. As the old addage says, "look after the pennies, and the pounds will look after themselves"!

I totally agree, and usually do. My wife was not happy about spending $240 on Phish :) My point is that it is very complicated to track everything. My household of 5, my businesses, my recreation. I guess the way to wrap up my gp comment is that Apple could move into this space becoming a major value driver to consumers.

I can imagine it is very hard tracking that!

Is there a way you could split each area to a separate account/card so that you can spot odd spendings? eg. recreation on one, business on another, food on another, fuel on another, general household/mortgage/insurance on another, and then another for miscellaneous ?

Sounds like an opportunity for an app of sorts....

Re: Apple’s Social Network

#150

Post by ProAm »

p33p wrote: post #28

I've been shocked that Apple hasn't stepped more in to the home automation market. Homekit is one thing, but an entire product line that is highly integrated with the Apple ecosystem and has the Apple design, feel, and ease of use seems like a smart strategic move in a market that is so highly fragmented.

This is because another company has not done it well enough yet for Apple to borrow their idea and improve upon it. That is largely how Apple works (Look at HomePod, iPhone, etc...), let someone invent an idea/process/service, then take that idea and make it better. Home automation is still trying to take root, give it a few years and Apple will have a strong product here I believe.
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