Apple Reports Declining Profits and Slowing Growth Again • Hacker News Board

Re: Apple Reports Declining Profits and Slowing Growth Again

#191

Post by eeeeeeeeeeeee » Tue, Jul 30, 2019, 10:37 PM UTC

vannevar wrote: post #93

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.

Still, the company hasn't released an innovative hardware product since 2008. That's a long time for them. If Apple can't innovate anymore, regardless of whether they have continued financial success, are they still really Apple?

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Re: Apple Reports Declining Profits and Slowing Growth Again

#192

Post by gnicholas » Tue, Jul 30, 2019, 10:38 PM UTC

brian-armstrong wrote: post #165

S_A_P wrote: post #32

I have thought long and hard about upgrading my iPhone 8 to one of the new X models, but I don't like the lack of a home button. I guess I am officially old now, but I dont want to look at my phone to unlock it. I like that I can reach in my pocket, and unlock it with my thumb as I retrieve it. It may be user error, but I see several co-workers have to really train the phone on their face to unlock with Face ID. That…

I'm fairly shocked to find that a community of seemingly technically competent people would forfeit their 4th amendment rights in order to save a few seconds keying in a passcode. This small detail feels like a microcosm of tech in general currently :/

Who’s forfeiting anything? If you don’t want to unlock your device for law enforcement, just use the sleep/lock button to make your phone require the passcode (which the police can’t legally compel you to give, I believe). It takes several seconds to key in a reasonably secure passcode, and it ceases to be secure if you type it in view of any security cameras. Also, if you open your phone 50 times per day, it’s way more than just a few seconds.

Re: Apple Reports Declining Profits and Slowing Growth Again

#193

Post by zippergz » Tue, Jul 30, 2019, 10:38 PM UTC

vbezhenar wrote: post #182

rimliu wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I could not care less about touch bar either way, but I would not willingly go back to touch id from face id.

What's wrong with touch id? I never used face id, but fingerprint sensor on iPhone 8 is good. It unlocks at the same time I'm pressing on button, so most of the time I don't notice it at all. And I almost never getting false negatives. I can't imagine how face id might be better, but I can imagine how it can be worse.

In my experience, Face ID is much faster and more seamless. Basically it's like my phone isn't locked because before I'd even have a chance to think about it, it's unlocked. I was VERY resistant to losing the home button, but I find that the new gestures are much more natural for me. Obviously this is a personal preference thing, but for quite a while I had a touch ID iPad and a Face ID iPhone, and it was really night and day how much nicer Face ID felt to me, and how nice it is to not have a home button wasting space on the phone. If they found a way to suppport Touch ID in addition to Face ID, without stealing space from the screen, I'm all for it, but I can't imagine going back to the old style of phone with no Face ID and a home button.

Re: Apple Reports Declining Profits and Slowing Growth Again

#194

Post by Shish2k » Tue, Jul 30, 2019, 10:39 PM UTC

koolba wrote: post #148

noncoml wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I thought this was a joke as I haven’t used a recent Mac in a while but apparently it’s not. There really isn’t an escape key! https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207358

I remapped capslock to escape, which simultaneously gives me back a useful key and gets rid of a useless one :P

Re: Apple Reports Declining Profits and Slowing Growth Again

#195

Post by reaperducer » Tue, Jul 30, 2019, 10:39 PM UTC

S_A_P wrote: post #32

I have thought long and hard about upgrading my iPhone 8 to one of the new X models, but I don't like the lack of a home button. I guess I am officially old now, but I dont want to look at my phone to unlock it. I like that I can reach in my pocket, and unlock it with my thumb as I retrieve it. It may be user error, but I see several co-workers have to really train the phone on their face to unlock with Face ID. That…

I don't like the lack of a home button

I resisted the button-less form until my buttoned iPhone broke, and I got a hand-me-down X.

Now when I use my iPad, which has a button, there's a brief moment of indignation, "What!? I have to touch a button to unlock this thing!?" every time I use it. It's funny how quickly we get used to things.

That said, I wish the phone wouldn't unlock when I'm just looking at the screen sometimes.

Re: Apple Reports Declining Profits and Slowing Growth Again

#196

Post by jknoepfler » Tue, Jul 30, 2019, 10:39 PM UTC

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.

It's impossible to evaluate the marginal return to Apple on increasing R&D by $1 versus increasing $1 in spending buying back stock in light of a tax windfall. They are both sources a potential value, neither is obviously correct, and the value of each dollar spent is highly non-linear.

Also who do you think the top shareholders of Apple are? Apple making a profit doesn't necessarily hurt the Vanguard ETFs my government-employeed middle class American family members sock retirement saving into...?

Re: Apple Reports Declining Profits and Slowing Growth Again

#197

Post by luminiferous » Tue, Jul 30, 2019, 10:40 PM UTC

Rebelgecko wrote: post #168

koolba wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought this was a joke as I haven’t used a recent Mac in a while but apparently it’s not. There really isn’t an escape key! https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207358

It's extra fun when touchbaragent hangs and you can't force quit anything

Personally, I just remapped capslock to esc, since I never use capslock. The touchbar does seem to hang more often nowadays, though. Especially when I'm trying to adjust the volume.

Re: Apple Reports Declining Profits and Slowing Growth Again

#198

Post by barkerja » Tue, Jul 30, 2019, 10:41 PM UTC

brian-armstrong wrote: post #165

S_A_P wrote: post #32

I have thought long and hard about upgrading my iPhone 8 to one of the new X models, but I don't like the lack of a home button. I guess I am officially old now, but I dont want to look at my phone to unlock it. I like that I can reach in my pocket, and unlock it with my thumb as I retrieve it. It may be user error, but I see several co-workers have to really train the phone on their face to unlock with Face ID. That…

I'm fairly shocked to find that a community of seemingly technically competent people would forfeit their 4th amendment rights in order to save a few seconds keying in a passcode. This small detail feels like a microcosm of tech in general currently :/

Any time I'm about to go through security, I long-press the volume and side buttons which immmediately activates the requirement for passcode to unlock.

It's a quick and easy shortcut to enable the passcode requirement.

Re: Apple Reports Declining Profits and Slowing Growth Again

#199

Post by mythz » Tue, Jul 30, 2019, 10:41 PM UTC

mruts wrote: post #152

situational87 wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 fut…

> What is exactly wrong with share buybacks?

AOC presents a good argument against Buy Backs from Big Pharma which incentives CEO's who's compensation is tied to stock price, which as a result she attributes as the cause of rising costs of health insurance:

https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1154794058272972801

Although Big Pharma doesn't operate in a natural economy where products are priced at optimal demand / supply for max Revenue. Instead their cost is hidden from the end-user, absorbed by insurance companies and amortized across all plan holders with rising cost of health insurance.

In the long-term Buy Backs shouldn't increase a companies value as it's just trading one Asset for another, i.e. it's cash reserves for shares in their own stock, they'd choose to do this if they've maxed out their R&D budget (very healthy at $14B) and if they believe their share price is undervalued, which at a 17 P/E is significantly lower than all other FANG stocks.

They could try and follow in AMZN's footsteps and try to expand into all areas outside of their core competency, but it's not their style which is to do a few things and do them well. IMO it's due to protecting and not wanting to dilute the high appeal of their Brand and Products.

The result of which they've ended up with an excessive amount of capital and no effective place to invest it, although IMO they should've invested a lot more in content like Netflix a lot sooner than they have with Apple TV+.

Re: Apple Reports Declining Profits and Slowing Growth Again

#200

Post by ubercow13 » Tue, Jul 30, 2019, 10:42 PM UTC

brian-armstrong wrote: post #165

S_A_P wrote: post #32

I have thought long and hard about upgrading my iPhone 8 to one of the new X models, but I don't like the lack of a home button. I guess I am officially old now, but I dont want to look at my phone to unlock it. I like that I can reach in my pocket, and unlock it with my thumb as I retrieve it. It may be user error, but I see several co-workers have to really train the phone on their face to unlock with Face ID. That…

I'm fairly shocked to find that a community of seemingly technically competent people would forfeit their 4th amendment rights in order to save a few seconds keying in a passcode. This small detail feels like a microcosm of tech in general currently :/

You might unlock your phone 10,000 or 100,000 times over its lifetime. It is just a hugely convenient thing to have that work as quickly as possible, without needing to enter a passcode every time. How likely is it that you will experience an unexpected breach of your 4th amendment rights where you don't have time to disable biometric access to your phone in advance, especially as the iPhone has a 'panic button' specifically to do this quickly. Face ID requires you to look at the phone anyway so in theory it's simple to avoid giving access to a cop.