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Apple’s next big thing: A business model change

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Re: Apple’s next big thing: A business model change

#141

Post by SkyPuncher »

robszumski wrote: post #68
gnicholas wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their new weather forecasting service is also intriguing. They will soon have millions of thermometer-equipped Apple Watches in the world (IIRC the Series 8 and AWU will have these), allowing them to create an incredibly detailed mapping of temperatures around the world (or at least places where people can afford expensive watches...).

I'm not sure what happened but Dark Sky went from awesome to awful in recent months after the Apple acquisition. Is it just me? Going from "no rain all day" to actively raining with a huge storm 2 hours later. The app does update with this info, but very close to the actual storm.

This has been happening across nearly every weather source I've been using. My hypothesis is either:

* Climate change is causing problems with forecasting models

* Forecasting models changed, which has introduce unexpected edge cases

Re: Apple’s next big thing: A business model change

#142

Post by jliptzin »

shapefrog wrote: post #81
jliptzin wrote: post #77

I wish huge companies like Apple would just be happy with being #1 in their category, collecting their enormous profits and paying out dividends to shareholders, instead of feeling the need to take over the world.

So no itunes, no ipod, no iphones, no apps, no watch, no airpods, no M1 chips, nada...

Those are all improvements to their main product lines. I’m talking about apple car or credit cards or whatever else they’re going to do. If people at apple want to build a car they should form a new company to do it. I don’t want my phone, computer, car, and credit card all issued by the same company.

Re: Apple’s next big thing: A business model change

#143

Post by twoodfin »

onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #51
traceroute66 wrote: post #5

Honestly, for anyone who watches Apple close enough, this isn't news. Its clear Apple are heading down the disruptive disintermediation route. Look at the Air Tag. Effectively killing off competitors by making use of the global network of Apple devices. Look at their recent BNPL (buy now, pay later) announcement for example. Managing the whole caboodle, including the finance itself, entirely internally. Or look at th…

> And frankly, given how shit most cell carriers are, I can't wait for Apple to come along and give the incumbents a run for their money. Why would the most profitable company in the world want to get into one of the worst businesses in the world? It's absurdly capital intensive. Sure, Apple has an abundance of capital, but their shareholders are unlikely to approve this over ever more share buybacks...

So is semiconductor fabrication, and Apple has been ridiculously successful as a middle-man there in both directions: Customers get the most advanced chips available at consumer prices. TSMC gets whatever capital they need, either advanced or in guaranteed order contracts.

Re: Apple’s next big thing: A business model change

#144

Post by naet »

jliptzin wrote: post #77

I wish huge companies like Apple would just be happy with being #1 in their category, collecting their enormous profits and paying out dividends to shareholders, instead of feeling the need to take over the world.

I think some of this will be the eventual undoing of some large companies. Take for example facebook; it early on came into a huge market dominance as a relatively simple social media site. Now it's hugely overblown with algorithms trying to wring a couple extra ad dollars out of existing users, at the cost of making the whole platform (imo) a lot worse, and this may be speculation but I think we've reached peak Meta and they will start to lose massive amounts of users and be replaced in the same way they replaced Myspace.

Re: Apple’s next big thing: A business model change

#145

Post by ibn_khaldun »

CharlesW wrote: post #100
ibn_khaldun wrote: post #47

This was a nice, brief informative and insightful blog post. As a business model I understand what Apple is doing and can register the strategy as calculated. As an Apple consumer, I am not that interested. Sometime after inheriting a pair of AirPod Pros and an Apple Watch I started to feel strange. Then I booted OpenBSD on my own hardware for the first time the other day, straight into the shell and I feel changed b…

> The AirPods that dig into my ear canals and make me mistake audiobooks and podcasts for my own thoughts… Neat, is that an iOS 16 feature? But seriously, there are things you can do to reclaim your attention span. Here are a few: https://medium.com/make-time/six-years-with-a-distraction-fr... https://hulry.com/ios-15-focus-mode/ https://www.wired.com/story/grayscale-ios-android-smartphone...

I’ve actually been in the process of doing something similar to what’s described in the Medium article. I’ve tried to grayscale thing out before too but I switch back after some time.

I think what I’m getting out for myself is more so a UX issue? I’m not sure. It’s not a matter of attention span with me specifically. But the look and feel of certain Apple devices as a whole makes me feel like someone who I’d hate to become. I could still see myself using an iPad or a Mac mini or something like that, because I’ve taking a liking for some of the things those devices have to offer for specific tasks.

But I would love for my phone to just be a concrete brick that can spit out thermal printed slips of paper with messages on it as text messaging and emails. And if only voice calls were a distributed mesh of Solo cups and strings.

Re: Apple’s next big thing: A business model change

#146

Post by yurishimo »

gnicholas wrote: post #112
superdug wrote: post #91

Am I a realist on Apple Apologist? My primary credit card is an apple card, primary dev machine is a mbp, primary work machine iPad, phone iPhone, watch Apple, and I have air tags attached to my dogs and wallet. In this ecosystem, I can reference _ANY_ of my screens for necessary and current relevant information whether it be curated or automated without breaking a glance to whatever primary device the content came f…

I understand airtagging a dog, but how do you fit one in your wallet? Are you worried about misplacing it in your home, leaving it behind somewhere else, or theft? I like airtags and use them myself, but never considered using it with a wallet.

I put an AirTag inside the little pouch/sleeve on the inside of my wallet (behind the cards).

It was a little awkward at first to get used to my wallet not sitting as flat anymore but I got over it. Luckily, I’m not a person who stores months worth of receipts and 20 cards in my wallet like my father, so there’s plenty of space.

It’s definitely come in handy a few times!

Re: Apple’s next big thing: A business model change

#147

Post by Larrikin »

robszumski wrote: post #68
gnicholas wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their new weather forecasting service is also intriguing. They will soon have millions of thermometer-equipped Apple Watches in the world (IIRC the Series 8 and AWU will have these), allowing them to create an incredibly detailed mapping of temperatures around the world (or at least places where people can afford expensive watches...).

I'm not sure what happened but Dark Sky went from awesome to awful in recent months after the Apple acquisition. Is it just me? Going from "no rain all day" to actively raining with a huge storm 2 hours later. The app does update with this info, but very close to the actual storm.

As an Android user, it used to be a fun party trick at the bar, to show everyone the alert on my phone from dark sky that it was going to start raining in X minutes or that it was going to stop raining in Y minutes and then everyone checking later and it being basically down to the second accurate.

As a former paid user of Dark Sky that lost that information when Apple bought them I feel no sympathy for iOS users that Dark Sky has gone to crap

I am sad such an amazing tool for the world was destroyed by a corporation trying to deprive another corporation so they could maybe make a little more money.

Re: Apple’s next big thing: A business model change

#148

Post by arcticbull »

whatshisface wrote: post #140
pwinnski wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They can take ~3-4% of the transaction, net like 0.5% for a 6 week loan, which is like a 4.5% APR. Their margins may be better than peers since they can use their own cash instead of raising debt. Maybe 6-7% APR. It's also short-term debt that turns over fast so it's highly liquid. Apple has said they'll be charging zero interest and zero fees for this service, including zero late fees, so where the yield will be c…

If they don't collect from buyers, they can collect from sellers. If you look back to when credit cards were new, you had them making shops agree not to charge credit card users more, despite the fees. That put cash users at a newfound disadvantage, and shops had to put up with it because card users were numerous enough.

That's exactly right. BNPLs generally charge more than credit card acquirers do, something in the 3-4% range, but the breakdown of these numbers tend to be closely guarded and that reflects outside estimates. One has to imagine Apple thinks they can command a premium here too.

With respect to cards: cards have a number of advantages for both merchants and customers. Cash is not free to handle and carries risk (theft, etc) and it's really slow. Credit card buyers tend to have larger average ticket sizes (20% larger was the last one I saw) and card buyers have more confidence buying from smaller shops knowing that they can always charge back the merchant if something goes terribly wrong. In a real way chargebacks are a big part of how we got e-commerce.

Merchant agreements generally precluded credit surcharges but they always allowed cash discounts. This is commonly seen at US gas stations to this day. They also prohibited credit card minimum purchase amounts. To my knowledge both of these are no longer true.

Shops aren't putting up with cards so much as embracing them because that's how their customers want to pay, and they don't want to miss out on a sale.

Re: Apple’s next big thing: A business model change

#149

Post by Hamcha »

traceroute66 wrote: post #5

Honestly, for anyone who watches Apple close enough, this isn't news. Its clear Apple are heading down the disruptive disintermediation route. Look at the Air Tag. Effectively killing off competitors by making use of the global network of Apple devices. Look at their recent BNPL (buy now, pay later) announcement for example. Managing the whole caboodle, including the finance itself, entirely internally. Or look at th…

Competition is great, especially when it breaks oligopolies, I just hope stuff like the Digital Markets Act will manage to stop them from abusing their positions to make their solution a monopoly

Re: Apple’s next big thing: A business model change

#150

Post by yurishimo »

Aperocky wrote: post #135
JKCalhoun wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe the difference was that Facebook was a one-trick pony that, unlike Apple, soiled their brand rather than bolstered it?

hindsight is 2020. What I'm referring to is instead of coming up with something that could be a game changer organically, forcing it because "We need a big idea now". That has a much higher chance to fail.

I think this is why it’s taken so long to release the VR headset. It’s obviously been functional for years at this point and there are tons of other headsets on the market proving there is at least some demand.

But I think apple is taking it slow and waiting for the right opportunity rather than shoehorn it in at the last second of Q4 to bolster EOY earnings.

Same with the car. I’m more skeptical of that project ever seeing the light of day, but there is no doubt that apple has the resources to bring that product to market if they wanted to, but they’re also smart enough to read the room.

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