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Apple Reports Record First Quarter Results

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Re: Apple Reports Record First Quarter Results

#171

Post by james33 »

hyp0 wrote: post #44

Apple has the technology headroom to keep making more powerful iphones for several more generations... but will it reach a point where people don't need a more powerful phone? (that they don't get any benefit from it, so that power is not utilized). I would have thought they were more powerful than a phone needs to be already, but obviously not! One view is that they are still replacing desktops, suggesting users wil…

Why wouldn't gaming be a key usage? On iPhone alone it is a multi-billion dollar industry. I think gaming could be one of the big driving forces moving forward once they get serious about Apple TV. Give it a few years for the processing to catch up to today's consoles and you no longer need an Xbox/Playstation.

Re: Apple Reports Record First Quarter Results

#172

Post by MBCook »

slantyyz wrote: post #166
MBCook wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No docking station - Don't really need one. Thunderbolt can handle most everything, and then you just have power. In my experience most people I see use a laptop only use power and maybe a wireless mouse receiver and a monitor. I don't see many people plugging 12 things in. Batteries - Macs get phenomenal battery life, it's not an issue for most people. Much like iPhones there is an argument for swappable batteries b…

>> In general Apple's laptops are just well built and feel solid. Some PCs are like that, many aren't due to cost. If I'm going to use a machine every day for 4 years I want to know it's well built and holds up well. Be glad you're not like me and are stuck with a lemon like the 2011 Macbook Pro. It's a well built (chassis-wise, at least) and solid brick with a well known design defect that Apple refuses to acknowled…

I've had that kind of problem before, and I can also tell you the old PowerBooks in the G4 era could be pretty bad. You were thrilled to upgrade because it made a big difference. I've owned some of the older laptops where bits would start wearing out.

My current laptop is a 2010 MBP and I've upgraded both the RAM and the HD, neither one is an option now. The upfront costs are higher than they used to be, and I'm not a fan of that.

But that's part of the price of liking Apple hardware. It's the tradeoff they've decided to make and it's not enough to offset the other benefits and drive me away.

I've seen enough Apple hardware at work and from friends to generally think it's good quality and not worry too much about buying my next machine from them.

Re: Apple Reports Record First Quarter Results

#173

Post by pluma »

pluma wrote: post #124
archagon wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would be hard for another company to imitate Apple's hardware/software integration. One of the reasons I've bought Macbooks for my last two laptops was that I knew that the OS and most of its software was designed with my hardware in mind.

That's precisely what stopped me from buying into the Apple cosmos. If I want an Apple Watch, I need to buy an iPhone. If I buy an iPhone, I should use iTunes. In order to get a version of iTunes that isn't atrocious, I need to use OSX. In order to use OSX I need to buy an iMac or MBP. Want to use an iPod? Same thing, just skip the first step. Want to develop apps for (or port apps to) iOS? Again, same thing. I'm usi…

*everybody poops, I mean. That wasn't an intended to sound like an order.

Re: Apple Reports Record First Quarter Results

#174

Post by afro88 »

zak_mc_kracken wrote: post #23
fidotron wrote: post #6

Truly phenomenal. But then when no one else is making decent laptops this is what happens. If anything the gap has grown thanks to Windows 8. I'm not a fan of Yosemite by any stretch, but it is very much the least bad of the available options. And on mobile, iOS is very clearly in for the long haul now. There was a time a couple of years ago when Android looked like it might gain enough momentum to sweep them away, b…

I have the opposite impression. Regardless of the bug aspect, I find that Windows 8 looks much more advanced, polished and sophisticated than Mac OS, which has been stagnating for several years now and is still riddled with mindboggling inconsistencies (e.g. why can I rename a file in the Finder but not in an open file dialog, which looks exactly like a Finder?).

Rather, it's that you got used to renaming files in an open file dialog from when you used other OS's and you now expect it to work like that.

Logically, an open file dialog should be read only since the task you're trying to achieve is just to open a file, not rename one. This means no accidents etc. And if you've ever seen my Mum open a file, you'll know accidents happen all the time ;)

Re: Apple Reports Record First Quarter Results

#175

Post by sillysaurus3 »

hollerith wrote: post #158
amatix wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The $184K is net profit, so each employee's salary is already counted. Another way of thinking about it: every Apple employee can get a $180K salary increase and they'd still make money.

A salary increase of $180K quarterly (== $720K annually)!

Wow... Is that correct?

Re: Apple Reports Record First Quarter Results

#176

Post by kalleboo »

zak_mc_kracken wrote: post #23
fidotron wrote: post #6

Truly phenomenal. But then when no one else is making decent laptops this is what happens. If anything the gap has grown thanks to Windows 8. I'm not a fan of Yosemite by any stretch, but it is very much the least bad of the available options. And on mobile, iOS is very clearly in for the long haul now. There was a time a couple of years ago when Android looked like it might gain enough momentum to sweep them away, b…

I have the opposite impression. Regardless of the bug aspect, I find that Windows 8 looks much more advanced, polished and sophisticated than Mac OS, which has been stagnating for several years now and is still riddled with mindboggling inconsistencies (e.g. why can I rename a file in the Finder but not in an open file dialog, which looks exactly like a Finder?).

I've seen enough novice users inadvertently move or rename files in the Windows save and open file dialogs that I'd call that a feature.

Re: Apple Reports Record First Quarter Results

#177

Post by gxx »

MBCook wrote: post #149
hkmurakami wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Better keyboard, (infinitely) better touchpad, better chassis (to the touch). The places where my hands interact with the machine are much more efficient and pleasing on a mac than any other machine (which is sad, because I LOVED my Thinkpads in the early 2000s).

> The places where my hands interact with the machine are much more efficient and pleasing on a mac In general I'll agree with you but there is ONE thing that I don't like on Macs and still exists to this day (I believe). The notch in the aluminum below the trackpad to make it easy to open the machine has sharp left and right right angles, and that pokes me from time to time. I figure that's one of those 'this looks…

Every Macbook I buy I use some sandpaper (medium coarse and then fine) to round the sharp corners between the sides and the surface containing the keyboard & trackpad. I especially round the sharp points on the corners of finger-cutout to open the lid.

I also slightly round the edges where the sides meet the top and bottom surface of the case.

The result is that those sharp unpleasant feeling corners are now silky smooth, around a 1 mm radii. I'm surprised Apple didn't design it this way in the first place.

Note: It's important to be cautious not get any aluminum dust in any of the ports or electronics.

Re: Apple Reports Record First Quarter Results

#178

Post by porsupah »

robryan wrote: post #109
Fomite wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's entirely possible it's not "in decline" but has merely hit saturation.

Anecdotally it seems like ipads have a longer lifespan than a phone as well. Those with an ipad 1 will probably have to upgrade and those with a 2 might want to for the retina display. The 3 though have been out for nearly 3 years and is still fine. Whereas someone who bought a phone at the same time may have already upgraded.

Indeed. I had an original iPad, and in Oct '13, went for an iPad Air. By that point, the improvements were great enough to make an argument, to me, for a replacement.

But then, this is HN - we're not typical of the rest of the world. Much as many folk seem to enjoy keeping up with the latest and greatest phones, I only reluctantly moved from a well-used iPhone 3G to a 5s. (A great improvement in internal tech, absolutely, but I miss that smaller screen, where everything was reachable with the thumb, in one hand - even the 5s' tall screen means having to shift its position for some applications, even aside from the current series. So it goes)

Re: Apple Reports Record First Quarter Results

#179

Post by slantyyz »

MBCook wrote: post #172
slantyyz wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> In general Apple's laptops are just well built and feel solid. Some PCs are like that, many aren't due to cost. If I'm going to use a machine every day for 4 years I want to know it's well built and holds up well. Be glad you're not like me and are stuck with a lemon like the 2011 Macbook Pro. It's a well built (chassis-wise, at least) and solid brick with a well known design defect that Apple refuses to acknowled…

I've had that kind of problem before, and I can also tell you the old PowerBooks in the G4 era could be pretty bad. You were thrilled to upgrade because it made a big difference. I've owned some of the older laptops where bits would start wearing out. My current laptop is a 2010 MBP and I've upgraded both the RAM and the HD, neither one is an option now. The upfront costs are higher than they used to be, and I'm not…

Well, let me tell you, I have never retired a PC laptop for any other reason that it got slow with age. That includes the cheap ones.

My Macbook Pro was almost four years old but still quite fast. I replaced the logic board once under AppleCare, but it died out of warranty just before Christmas. I am not interested in paying 500+ for a new logic board with the same defect that my two previous logic boards had. There are plenty of other people in the same boat as me.

Any good will that I had for Apple is now long gone. I'm just hoping I can get something out of the class action that has been filed.

Re: Apple Reports Record First Quarter Results

#180

Post by pistle »

adl wrote: post #121
potatolicious wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More than Windows sucking, the OEM laptop industry has largely fumbled hardware. For a while it looked like Dell and/or Samsung might actually give Apple a run for its money in terms of design and quality, but that fell flat on its face. I'm a pretty biased sample, but honestly I know more people running non-OSX on Apple laptops than I know people running non-OSX on non-Apple laptops. Apple's laptops beat the rest of…

Serious question, what makes Apple laptops beat the rest of the industry? No docking station, can't change batteries, no touch screens, no spill resistant keyboards, no matte screen option,etc. You also need those dongles for ethernet and video and can't upgrade RAM or hard drives on the retina models. Sure, the OS (if you need/like OSX, there is little choice), and the trackpad (if you like that those) are good, the…

Apple laptop market share is Apple may sell more than any other single company in some markets, but their overall market dominance is mostly an illusion trumpeted by advocates.
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