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

Apple Reports Declining Profits and Slowing Growth Again

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 527 posts

Re: Apple Reports Declining Profits and Slowing Growth Again

#151

Post by m-p-3 »

noncoml wrote: post #142
gonational wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If one of these major launches is a MacBook Pro with the same (or better) specs (esp video graphics) as their latest MacBook Pro, but without a TouchBar, they will get at least $2,500 from me. If one of these major launches is an iPhone X-like phone with a thumbprint reader (home button or otherwise), they will get at least another $1,000 from me.

I don’t even mind the touchbar. Just give me back the Escape key!

At least that, and the idea of making the touchbar an actual tray is a great idea, would like this to be natively done and keep the screen as free as possible for the actual apps.

As long as it's optional, I could see people not liking this.

Re: Apple Reports Declining Profits and Slowing Growth Again

#152

Post by mruts »

situational87 wrote: post #107
jknoepfler wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

those are obviously not meaningfully commensureable numbers.

Why not? They can spend their money however they want, but Wall Street demands endless share buybacks over everything else. Do you think there is any downside to just transferring wealth to the (already rich) shareholders over and over and over again? Seems to be their top priority nowadays.

What is exactly wrong with share buybacks? Clearly they have more capital than they can deploy effectively right now, so they plan for the future by putting some powder in their gun. Share buybacks serve three main purposes:

1) increase the share price (as you mentioned) 2) signal to investors that the company is bullish on it's future (they wouldn't buyback shares if they thought the shares would be lower in the future) 3) Give the company the option to sell the shares in the future in case the extra capital can be used for a prudent use.

It's really mystifying why people are so against share buybacks while no one talks about dividends. They share a lot of similarity, but buybacks provide more options and greater tax efficiency so they should be preferred over dividends in most cases.

> Do you think there is any downside to just transferring wealth to the (already rich) shareholders over and over and over again? Seems to be their top priority nowadays.

That's not what's really going on (see above). Also, I would hazard to guess that most people who have exposure to the stock market have direct market exposure to Apple. Moreover, about half of households have direct (non-pension) exposure to the stock market. So I don't think your claim about it only benefiting the "already rich" shareholders hold much water. Hell, I would bet that 90% of HN users have direct exposure to equity markets.

Also, I bet you do as well.

Re: Apple Reports Declining Profits and Slowing Growth Again

#153

Post by romaaeterna »

gonational wrote: post #121
MaysonL wrote: post #8

And the stock increased over 4% in after-hours trading, as increases in non-iPhone hardware sales and services overcame the decrease in iPhone sales. Earnings per share slightly beat the consensus forecast. An interesting quote from Cook in the press release: "The balance of calendar 2019 will be an exciting period, with major launches on all of our platforms, new services and several new products"

If one of these major launches is a MacBook Pro with the same (or better) specs (esp video graphics) as their latest MacBook Pro, but without a TouchBar, they will get at least $2,500 from me. If one of these major launches is an iPhone X-like phone with a thumbprint reader (home button or otherwise), they will get at least another $1,000 from me.

I have an pre-touchbar macbook pro on my desk that I've been using as an in-place workstation. For some reason, I pulled it out of its place and opened it up this past week, and I was blown away by the improved typing experience.

I think that I'll be upgrading back to the old one going forward.

And I promise that the next laptop I buy (or my company buys for me) won't have a touch bar or a butterfly keyboard.

Re: Apple Reports Declining Profits and Slowing Growth Again

#154

Post by tptacek »

gonational wrote: post #121
MaysonL wrote: post #8

And the stock increased over 4% in after-hours trading, as increases in non-iPhone hardware sales and services overcame the decrease in iPhone sales. Earnings per share slightly beat the consensus forecast. An interesting quote from Cook in the press release: "The balance of calendar 2019 will be an exciting period, with major launches on all of our platforms, new services and several new products"

If one of these major launches is a MacBook Pro with the same (or better) specs (esp video graphics) as their latest MacBook Pro, but without a TouchBar, they will get at least $2,500 from me. If one of these major launches is an iPhone X-like phone with a thumbprint reader (home button or otherwise), they will get at least another $1,000 from me.

The entire Mac platform is less than 10% of their revenue, for what it's worth.

Re: Apple Reports Declining Profits and Slowing Growth Again

#155

Post by m-p-3 »

jandrewrogers wrote: post #16

That iPhones were less than half their revenue, while still growing overall revenue, is a positive sign. Apple has done a good job of diversifying their revenue base over the last few years. It will be interesting to see how large wearables and services can become as revenue sources, I suspect they are still quite early in their growth.

Agreed, they'll definitely make some money with Apple Music and Apple News+

Re: Apple Reports Declining Profits and Slowing Growth Again

#156

Post by pas »

gonational wrote: post #121
MaysonL wrote: post #8

And the stock increased over 4% in after-hours trading, as increases in non-iPhone hardware sales and services overcame the decrease in iPhone sales. Earnings per share slightly beat the consensus forecast. An interesting quote from Cook in the press release: "The balance of calendar 2019 will be an exciting period, with major launches on all of our platforms, new services and several new products"

If one of these major launches is a MacBook Pro with the same (or better) specs (esp video graphics) as their latest MacBook Pro, but without a TouchBar, they will get at least $2,500 from me. If one of these major launches is an iPhone X-like phone with a thumbprint reader (home button or otherwise), they will get at least another $1,000 from me.

Have you considered spending less on Apple stuff and more on planting trees (or otherwise advocating for reduced GHG emissions)?

(Serious and sincere question.)

Re: Apple Reports Declining Profits and Slowing Growth Again

#157

Post by imagetic »

gonational wrote: post #121
MaysonL wrote: post #8

And the stock increased over 4% in after-hours trading, as increases in non-iPhone hardware sales and services overcame the decrease in iPhone sales. Earnings per share slightly beat the consensus forecast. An interesting quote from Cook in the press release: "The balance of calendar 2019 will be an exciting period, with major launches on all of our platforms, new services and several new products"

If one of these major launches is a MacBook Pro with the same (or better) specs (esp video graphics) as their latest MacBook Pro, but without a TouchBar, they will get at least $2,500 from me. If one of these major launches is an iPhone X-like phone with a thumbprint reader (home button or otherwise), they will get at least another $1,000 from me.

I hope we'll see it soon.

Based on everything else they've done, I figure it will be $3500+ build though and push into the $5k range.

Re: Apple Reports Declining Profits and Slowing Growth Again

#158

Post by dkarl »

rimliu wrote: post #150
dkarl wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like the gestures, but the unpredictability of when FaceID is going to work is maddening. Sometimes it works with sunglasses, sometimes not. Sometimes it works in the dim light of my bedroom, sometimes not. Sometimes it works when I absolutely don't expect it (half my face hidden in my pillow, towel wrapped around my face, complete darkness with face illuminated only by my lock screen) which only fools me into half…

Face ID does not need light to work. It projects its own grid of IR dots.

Is that going to help me know when it will work or not? I doubt it. I shouldn't need to be spinning theories about how it works anyway.

Re: Apple Reports Declining Profits and Slowing Growth Again

#159

Post by ses1984 »

hanniabu wrote: post #146
noncoml wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t even mind the touchbar. Just give me back the Escape key!

They removed the escape key? What the..... I'm never going to retire my 2013 MBP at this rate.

It's very easy to remap caps lock to escape.

Re: Apple Reports Declining Profits and Slowing Growth Again

#160

Post by scarface74 »

augustk wrote: post #128
ceezuns wrote: post #94

I don't understand why these articles think that people will just keep buying, like in the past decade the lifespan of devices has become bigger and bigger. I'm typing this post on a 2013 Macbook and I'm sure a lot of other users are using older laptops than that, that run perfectly fine. Like does the media just expect people to be buying new stuff again and again? I don't know if I'm just missing the point or somet…

Sooner or later you will have to buy a new device due to planned obsolescence, i.e. when (security) updates are no longer released. But then you can of course install a free operating system instead.

In the case of iOS devices, Apple just released a series of patches for devices back to the iPhone 4s that was introduced in 2011.
Post reply on HN