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Apple Reports Fourth Quarter Results

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21–30 of 127 posts

Re: Apple Reports Fourth Quarter Results

#21

It's fascinating to me that the iPad is flat and being effectively cannibalized by the iPhone. Can anyone think of a similar example where a newer form factor gets re-absorbed or passed by the previous form factor? (I probably need a more elegant way to say this)

Laptops ate the desktop. Is that what you mean?

Other way around. The analogy would be the desktop eating the laptop.

Re: Apple Reports Fourth Quarter Results

#22

It's fascinating to me that the iPad is flat and being effectively cannibalized by the iPhone. Can anyone think of a similar example where a newer form factor gets re-absorbed or passed by the previous form factor? (I probably need a more elegant way to say this)

You mean like the iPod was cannibalized by the iPhone, more or less, and it's revenues have been steadily declining (-28% this quarter compared to Q4 2013)?

Well that's "normal" progress. To take your example it would be the iPod suddenly roaring back to life after the iPhone had been around 3 years or more and growing rapidly and the iPhone becoming flat in sales. That's why it's so unique (I think)

Re: Apple Reports Fourth Quarter Results

#23
post #4

Apple at $400 will likely be the best value investment of my career.

Apple at $12 (pre split, ca 1996) is the whale that got away of my investment career.

My dad still remembers (and complains about) when his stockbroker was calling him begging him to buy stock in the nearly bankrupt Apple saying it was a good opportunity.

Even a tiny investment would've paid off easily even by the mid 2000s.

Re: Apple Reports Fourth Quarter Results

#24

It's fascinating to me that the iPad is flat and being effectively cannibalized by the iPhone. Can anyone think of a similar example where a newer form factor gets re-absorbed or passed by the previous form factor? (I probably need a more elegant way to say this)

You mean like the iPod was cannibalized by the iPhone, more or less, and it's revenues have been steadily declining (-28% this quarter compared to Q4 2013)?

Kind of like how iPod Nano cannibalized iPod Mini.

Re: Apple Reports Fourth Quarter Results

#25
post #8
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

iPads aren’t doing so well, worse than analysts expected (but we have known this now for quite some time so it isn’t exactly a surprise). Everything else is pretty much above analyst expectations, weirdly enough, even the iPod (who still buys that?). To be honest, as a consumer I would be ok with this, if not for the software ecosystem. (I like the iPad and it’s useful to me personally. What do I care whether it sets…

iPad is much bigger than Mac ever was and it's had great developer support.

Well, I think it’s more complicated than that.

What I do enjoy about the Mac are these small indie devs, selling their software at relatively high prices (read: $50 instead of $3). The Mac doesn’t have all the software, but it has some really cool, high-quality software that shares my values when it comes to design and UI.

The App Store (to some extent even the App Store on the Mac) was never really like that and always a more toxic place with cutthroat pricing. You can’t sell $50 software on the iPad (even $10 software is hard to sell), so the situation is just a different one on that device.

I mean, devs are frustrated with their inability to make money on the iPhone by just charging for software – and that device is way, way, way bigger than the Mac ever was.

Selling software on iOS has its own quirks that makes it different from the Mac.

That said, it has always been harder to find devs that share my values on iOS, so maybe that's a general problem of the platform (maybe it’s just a problem with discoverability and there are in fact more devs that share my values on iOS than on the Mac!) and has not a lot to do with how well these devices sell.

Re: Apple Reports Fourth Quarter Results

#26

It's fascinating to me that the iPad is flat and being effectively cannibalized by the iPhone. Can anyone think of a similar example where a newer form factor gets re-absorbed or passed by the previous form factor? (I probably need a more elegant way to say this)

There is no "previous form factor", the iPhone 6 Plus is still a "newer form factor" absorbing the older one.

Re: Apple Reports Fourth Quarter Results

#27

It's fascinating to me that the iPad is flat and being effectively cannibalized by the iPhone. Can anyone think of a similar example where a newer form factor gets re-absorbed or passed by the previous form factor? (I probably need a more elegant way to say this)

It's actually pretty smart. They are allowing cannibalization of the iPad to the iPhone Plus because the margins on the iPhone Plus are higher, and people actually upgrade it every 2 years. I don't know a single person, including myself, that has had any impetus to upgrade their iPad, so this is a way of shifting people over to a phone model where there is a more defined upgrade cycle.

My mother in law and wife are both desperate to upgrade their iPads, which are an original model, and a non-retina iPad mini.

We may well buy 2 new iPads over the next 10 months. The point being that there is an upgrade cycle that is more like the Mac than the iPhone, but there is a cycle.

Re: Apple Reports Fourth Quarter Results

#28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple at $12 (pre split, ca 1996) is the whale that got away of my investment career.

My (non-tech) friend was sighing about this too, until he thought some more and realized he would have certainly sold it at $20. Which would possibly be an even worse feeling.

My initial tranche of options were at $42 in 2004; I sold the majority in 2009. I alternate regret, rage, and joy in the fact that my extremely good luck in getting the job at Apple allowed me to completely clear my family's debts, and provide capital to start an (ultimately) unsuccessful company.

Can't change the past, but oh, there are times.

Re: Apple Reports Fourth Quarter Results

#30

It's fascinating to me that the iPad is flat and being effectively cannibalized by the iPhone. Can anyone think of a similar example where a newer form factor gets re-absorbed or passed by the previous form factor? (I probably need a more elegant way to say this)

You mean like the iPod was cannibalized by the iPhone, more or less, and it's revenues have been steadily declining (-28% this quarter compared to Q4 2013)?

No, I believe OP is pointing out that a newer product (the iPad) is being cannibalized by a product originally released earlier (the iPhone). The iPhone cannibalizing the iPod was to be expected - the iPhone came later.

I think it is a pretty astounding change. For a while everyone was thinking "Tablets would kill PCs/laptops". Instead, I think these "super phones" may end up killing (OK, not killing, but at least taking a big bite from) tablets, while laptops remain unscathed because they are still better for heavy duty content creation.

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