Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Apple Reports Fourth Quarter Results

apple.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 127 posts

Re: Apple Reports Fourth Quarter Results

#71

Post by jusben1369 »

dntrkv wrote: post #65
jusben1369 wrote: post #11

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)

I don't see any reason to believe that is the case. I think a more logical explanation would be that consumers aren't gonna buy a new iPad every year. I bought an iPad 2 for my parents and they're still using it to this day and have no issues with it. Maybe next year I will get them an updated version. But if you look at the iPhone, most people are on a 2 year upgrade schedule.

But you're only looking at one part of the equation which is existing customers refreshing vs net new sales. So while I agree the refresh cycle might be slower than imagined that's not the only thing going on here.

Re: Apple Reports Fourth Quarter Results

#72

Post by rtpg »

Apple is holding onto $200 billion dollars in cash. I do like Bill Gate's whole "Let's be able to survive at least a year even if we have no revenue" but companies holding onto this much cash seems like a social ill (and a pretty good counterargument to the whole trickle-down effect)

Re: Apple Reports Fourth Quarter Results

#73

Post by saithier »

jfb wrote: post #28
idlewords wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Well, if it makes you feel any better, I sold 14k shares (adjusted for splits) back in 2002 to buy a used car.

Didn't have nearly as much room as that house I coulda bought in SF. :-/

Re: Apple Reports Fourth Quarter Results

#74

Post by andykellr »

enraged_camel wrote: post #48
idlewords wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

This happened to me with Tesla. I bought a hundred shares at $35, and had a sell order that said, "sell if it drops more than 10%." Two months later, around $80, it fell to $70 or something like that, and mine automatically got sold. Then it jumped to $250. But I was gambling with it (it's the only time in my life I've bought a single company's stock like that), and I think in retrospect the result is quite good. I j…

When I got my car in March 2013, I decided it was so amazing that I should buy some stock. I don't really invest in individual stocks so I bought 100 shares at $20. A few weeks later I sold 50 for $35 (an amazing % return). Then I watched it climb to $280, wishing I bought 1,000 instead and hung on.

Despite my missed opportunity, I think the car is far better than any other vehicle on the road. There really is no comparison. 8-speed double-clutch automatic with paddle shifters? I prefer no transmission. I could go on and on.

Hopefully, someday in the distant future, all of our cars will be non-smoking.

Re: Apple Reports Fourth Quarter Results

#75

Post by ninkendo »

Someone1234 wrote: post #14
IBM wrote: post #4

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

For anyone confused, the reason Apple is currently only worth around $98/share (when the person above invested $400, and consider it a good investment) is that Apple split their stock in June this year. Before the split it was at $645.57/each, they gave everyone 7 worth $94/each instead. Since June the 7 pieces has gone from $94/each up to today's value of $98.32/each, or $688.24 pre-split. If they invested at $400/s…

My favorite part of the 7:1 split is that the new stock price could be thought of as a percentage value of the highest AAPL ever was before the split, which was ~$700 or so back in Sep 2012.

Re: Apple Reports Fourth Quarter Results

#76

Post by archagon »

MCRed wrote: post #49

The interesting conundrum here, as I see it, is that the iPad is losing its purpose. Before, it was between phones- which were small-- and laptops-- which were big. But the Air is becoming a lot more mainstream, laptops overall are becoming knife thin, and phones are getting bigger. I think the iPad was meant to replace the PC for most use cases-- e.g. the email, web surfing etc. and I think it's been somewhat succes…

This is probably too geeky for Apple to do, but I wish they offered direct video input on their iPads. You'd be able to use them for extra screen space, hobby projects, dedicated views for things like audio production, temporary screens for headless terminals... so many possibilities! (I know there are apps that do that, but they're workarounds at best and have too much latency and/or quality degradation.)

Re: Apple Reports Fourth Quarter Results

#78

Post by MBCook »

jusben1369 wrote: post #71
dntrkv wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see any reason to believe that is the case. I think a more logical explanation would be that consumers aren't gonna buy a new iPad every year. I bought an iPad 2 for my parents and they're still using it to this day and have no issues with it. Maybe next year I will get them an updated version. But if you look at the iPhone, most people are on a 2 year upgrade schedule.

But you're only looking at one part of the equation which is existing customers refreshing vs net new sales. So while I agree the refresh cycle might be slower than imagined that's not the only thing going on here.

Doesn't it make more sense that without the subsidy the iPad is treated more like a computer that someone upgrades every few years when they have an issue (breakage or speed) instead of every year or two like an iPhone (where you're throwing money away)?

The iPhone is pretty exceptional product, is it really fair to hold everything else to that standard? Are people going to cry foul when consumers don't replace their Apple Watch every 18 months?

Re: Apple Reports Fourth Quarter Results

#79

Post by sutterbomb »

BashiBazouk wrote: post #70
MCRed wrote: post #49

The interesting conundrum here, as I see it, is that the iPad is losing its purpose. Before, it was between phones- which were small-- and laptops-- which were big. But the Air is becoming a lot more mainstream, laptops overall are becoming knife thin, and phones are getting bigger. I think the iPad was meant to replace the PC for most use cases-- e.g. the email, web surfing etc. and I think it's been somewhat succes…

I don't know about that. I went to buy a iphone 6 and realized it would not fit in my jeans pocket very well. Decided to pass for now. Since getting an ipad I hardly use the phone for much more than email, camera and actual phone calls and the laptop is really gathering dust. I would much rather have a smaller phone and a tablet than an over sized phone.

It's interesting because I'm the exact opposite. I had an original ipad before I had a smartphone, used it all the time, but then saw an immediate drop in usage when I got the phone. Now as I've gotten more and more used to the phone over the years, my ipad has really started gathering dust.

Re: Apple Reports Fourth Quarter Results

#80

Post by ghshephard »

jusben1369 wrote: post #11

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)

I think the iPad has a longer replacement cycle - I have an iPad 3 that I use a lot - pretty much daily, and I purchased it on day of release march 2013. While I upgrade my iPhone every two years, I am so happy with my iPad I'm happy to wait another year, or maybe even two - it's fast, has an awesome screen - plus, it will make the leap onto the iPad air all that more awesome when I finally do upgrade.
Post reply on HN