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Apple Reports Fourth Quarter Results

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Re: Apple Reports Fourth Quarter Results

#161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course. But I don't see there being enough of those people to drive that kind of revenue to one company. Apple makes money like a fashion brand because that is what they are. They are very innovative and very good at doing it. I'm not trying to detract from their success. Just amazed that it works and has worked for so long. But I don't own any Apple technology and can't think of a reason I would buy any. Yes I do…

I don't think it's the mystery you do - they make money because they make the very best technology, that makes people who work with a wide range of workloads more effective, and so those people are willing to spend money with them. If Apple is compiling my application 1.5x as fast and lets me work 1.5x as long without recharging, that saves me genuine time in the day, either to do more work, or to work on my hobbies,…

> If Apple is compiling my application 1.5x as fast

The M1 Max (the highest end chip available in a Mac laptop) is slower than competition from Intel and AMD, though. I'm not sure what its supposed to be 50% faster than, unless you are only comparing it to old Intel Macs.

Re: Apple Reports Fourth Quarter Results

#162
post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Almost every adult in the developed world needs a smart phone. They replace these devices about every 2-3 years. Apple makes one of the best in class of these devices, and has successfully designed one such that it's hard to switch to a competitor (rather it's easier to stay in the ecosystem). They've convinced about a billion people on the planet that the iPhone is the best device for them, so if you split that into…

> Apple makes one of the best in class of these devices, and has successfully designed one such that it's hard to switch to a competitor (rather it's easier to stay in the ecosystem). I wonder how many years it will take before I can convince some people that I actually just prefer Apple's phones to competing phones and that I'm not actually brainwashed or forced by Apple to never leave. But that's exactly what a bra…

I switched to my first iPhone last year and for me the determining factor was not feeling I had to constantly be on the upgrade path. I've has my iPhone SE (2020) and haven't been happier with a phone. A taken care of iPhone can theoretically last 7-8 years since that is how long an iPhone generally gets OS and security updates. Android is getting better on flagship phones, but still not as good. By some none flagship android and your lucky to get 1 year of OS and security updates. My last android was a pixel and so was the one before that and every time I felt like after year 1 with an android, there is a massive performance drop off. I feel like my iPhone SE (2020) runs just as well today as the day it came out of the box.

Apple does do some things really well. Android could, and I really want to see them do it, but as of right now, there are some things Android does not do well.

Addition: And I think one thing that really hurt the Android ecosystem is when Android phones went through that phase of every phone flagship phone had some sort of gimmick. Where as Apple really just buttoned down and developed a really solid phone. A lot of android phone makers were just focusing on gimmicks like styluses or niche features to set them apart from other Android instead of just really developing a good solid smart phone.

Re: Apple Reports Fourth Quarter Results

#163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their numbers seem utterly unreal to me. How on earth do you sell $205 billion worth of just a single product (iPhone) every year? This is simply the greatest business to have ever been created. I can't imagine anything else ever topping it. The margins AND the volume are both insane.

I don't know if the number comes anywhere near the truth, but if for the sake of the idea imagine that the average iPhone costs $750 USD then $205 billion USD worth of iPhones is around 273,000,000 units. That means there is about 750,000 iPhones sold every day, or 31,250 iPhones sold every hour.

Which is around 8-9 iPhones per second.

Re: Apple Reports Fourth Quarter Results

#164
post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it's the mystery you do - they make money because they make the very best technology, that makes people who work with a wide range of workloads more effective, and so those people are willing to spend money with them. If Apple is compiling my application 1.5x as fast and lets me work 1.5x as long without recharging, that saves me genuine time in the day, either to do more work, or to work on my hobbies,…

> If Apple is compiling my application 1.5x as fast The M1 Max (the highest end chip available in a Mac laptop) is slower than competition from Intel and AMD, though. I'm not sure what its supposed to be 50% faster than, unless you are only comparing it to old Intel Macs.

When it came out, the new MacBook Air had better single-core performance than every Intel Mac that ever existed. Not just the Airs - all of them ... on a lower power budget.

I'm sure you can get even faster single-core by brute-force burning power, but Apple were trying to do something more intelligent by balancing with power.

I think anyone seriously trying to claim they can't see any value in this is clearly just being silly.

Re: Apple Reports Fourth Quarter Results

#165
post #138
post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Quite a vindication of Tim Cook’s decade at the helm. Agreed, if all you care about is Apple getting richer, he's done an outstanding job.

And making the best Macs of all time (and best laptops in the industry), and the best wireless headphones, and the phone with the biggest market share (one measure of best). I think Tim Cook’s Apple is doing very well

We have very different definitions of "best".

Re: Apple Reports Fourth Quarter Results

#166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its fascinating to watch US corporate sector catch up to state sponsored or partially nationalized entities. Like wow, what a powerhouse. Taking hundreds of years of the corporation concept to do it, but make a country whose culture is only that and its working in that regard.

Apple, Google and Microsoft are all arguably partially-nationalized entities. They aren't literally owned by the government, but our government does wield it's unfathomable economic power to push US-based tech companies to every corner of the globe. It's a sad, perverted form of imperialism, but I consider it partial-nationalization none the less.

This is a really bizarre take on what a nationalized or even "partially-nationalized" might mean. I could argue Apple is more impeded in its capabilities and growth by the US govt (anti trust concerns, labor relations concerns, tax liabilities, etc) than it is directly boosted. If it's just a benefit from being a US based corp... that's not at all nationalized?

Re: Apple Reports Fourth Quarter Results

#167
post #3

Annual revenue of $394 billion, more than a billion a day. Not the first company to do it, though. Exxon did it in the 2000s when oil was up to $140, and I think Walmart did it, too.

Their numbers seem utterly unreal to me. How on earth do you sell $205 billion worth of just a single product (iPhone) every year? This is simply the greatest business to have ever been created. I can't imagine anything else ever topping it. The margins AND the volume are both insane.

Toyota volume with Ferrari margins. The iPhone will go down as one of the single greatest products ever.

Re: Apple Reports Fourth Quarter Results

#168
post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve had an iPhone since the original 4G. It’s always been an easy transfer. I have voice memos that have migrated since that very first one.

The other day I thought of that... I was wondering if there would be people walking around with an iPhone 14 with photos taken with the camera of an iPhone 1st gen which they transferred every time they upgraded.

Me. Unfortunately, back then the photos didn't have much metadata, mostly just time and date. No geolocation.

Since i like to search for photos on the map on the macOS Photos program, this can be problematic. So when i was looking for a specific photo the other day, i had to scroll back by date to find it and that's how i found out it was taken on an original iPhone.

Re: Apple Reports Fourth Quarter Results

#169

The most amazing to me is how Apple reversed its fortunes with the Mac. According to a quick search of Wikipedia (haven't checked further), Mac worldwide market share was 5.7% in 1996 (after years of decline). It then dropped out of the top 5 for the next 20 years -- the page doesn't give numbers other than top 5, but in 2006 Toshiba was #5 with 3.8% so it was below that. Not only did it manage to bring its share bac…

Satya Nadella can pry my MacBook Pro from my cold, head hands.

The worry is that the person prying it, rather gently, will be Tim Cook.

The only hedge against that is the ecosystem for phone & ipad development is still the macbooks - so it does hurt Apple to take away the ability to write your own apps on a Macbook.

I got a new ipad this week and it is pretty clear that 99% of my non-work life can be lived on it - banks, games and all the streaming apps. I don't have any more collections of DVDs, games or music.

Even writing/drawing is better on a device which I can pick up and sit in a chair to read like a printed document, now that usb-c lets me plug it into my existing setup for screens when I do need a bigger screen.

Re: Apple Reports Fourth Quarter Results

#170
post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Almost every adult in the developed world needs a smart phone. They replace these devices about every 2-3 years. Apple makes one of the best in class of these devices, and has successfully designed one such that it's hard to switch to a competitor (rather it's easier to stay in the ecosystem). They've convinced about a billion people on the planet that the iPhone is the best device for them, so if you split that into…

> Apple makes one of the best in class of these devices, and has successfully designed one such that it's hard to switch to a competitor (rather it's easier to stay in the ecosystem). I wonder how many years it will take before I can convince some people that I actually just prefer Apple's phones to competing phones and that I'm not actually brainwashed or forced by Apple to never leave. But that's exactly what a bra…

Yeah. I went from iPhones to nexus phones for a couple gens. I went back to iPhones because I liked them better. At this point, it’s whatever someone prefers.
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