Live data from Hacker News

Apple Reports Declining Profits and Slowing Growth Again

nytimes.com

281–290 of 527 posts

Re: Apple Reports Declining Profits and Slowing Growth Again

#281
post #233

NY Times made a mess of this story and slanted it toward their agendas. Horrible reporting. Apple beat most estimates. Revenues grew. All time high revenue from services. Forward guidance was raised. https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2019/07/apple-reports-third-q...

I'm an Apple shareholder...biggest concern with driving "services" is that the 30% commission on in-app purchases is borderline obscene and I don't think longterm sustainable e.g. if the tech regulation hammer is pointed at Apple, regulation around the App Store, including limits on Apple's commission, would make the most sense.

So - shareholders better stay away from explaining business matters. You have no idea about the value the 30% brings.

Re: Apple Reports Declining Profits and Slowing Growth Again

#282
post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Drug research? Really? There is no part of Apple that is optimized for drug research. Even with the iPhone, they already had an OS that was the basis for it.

As I said, cameras or something similar would be working to their strengths. Hell, build a game console, Microsoft eventually pulled that off and Apple has a huge leg up. But, the thing is they don’t need to be good at something. Giant companies regularly expend into new areas. Employ the right people, make some investments, and suddenly they are competitive. I am not saying Apple should diversify like this. However,…

Game consoles are also not hugely profitable. In fact they are sold at a loss for the most part for the first few years. Microsoft loss billions selling game consoles on the first two or three generations. Even now, the mobile app market is larger and more profitable than the console market for Apple with them taking a 30% cut.

On top of that, Apple already announced the subscription Apple Arcade service and their games will run on iPhones, iPads, AppleTVs and Macs.

Between Microsoft and Sony, they sold a little over 100 million of the current generation consoles during their entire existence (https://www.cinemablend.com/games/2417541/ea-reveals-how-man...) - many of them at a loss. Apple sells 50-70 million iOS devices every quarter.

Heck Apple will probably sell more Watches (at a profit) than that during its first 5 years.

People are already spending more time on mobile devices than consoles.

As far as cameras, the standalone camera market has been declining for years because of the smart phone. There is only so much you can do with cameras in phones because of both physics and the cost has to be low enough to make the entire phone affordable. I’m sure no one at Apple is thinking about releasing the Apple QuickTake 2.

Re: Apple Reports Declining Profits and Slowing Growth Again

#283
post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you stop Google Play services from sending your location to google without disabling Location Services?

If you disable Location Services, which is an option presented on initial setup of the device, apps can still request the GPS permission directly (the default behavior in most location libraries), not sending your location to Google. This is not possible on iOS. Every location lookup will send your location to Apple.

How do you know iOS sends all location lookups to Apple?

Re: Apple Reports Declining Profits and Slowing Growth Again

#284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They didn't remove it, at least not functionally. There's still an ESC, it's just on the Touch Bar now.

That's not an escape key . Please don't apologize for this. I use vim and switch between a butterfly/touchbar Mac (work machine) and a Thinkpad (personal machine). Using the Mac keyboard has actually negatively impacted my typing speed when I use other systems! I remapped my vim keybindings, and now my muscle memory has atrophied. This dumb machine has actually made me a worse typist. I am so frustrated.

Remap caps lock to escape. I use vim and I can't stand the "standard" esc key position anymore.

Re: Apple Reports Declining Profits and Slowing Growth Again

#285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The iPhone is a product that completely transformed the world and defines what a smartphone is. There are 3 billion of them so almost half the world owns a smartphone. If your bar for "innovative" is seriously that incredibly high, prepare to be disappointed..

Agreed. But what are the contenders since 2008? The iPad and the Apple Watch. The iPad was really co-developed with the iPhone for all practical purposes, as the original iPad prototype inspired the phone. You can definitely make a case for the watch, but it's an extension of the phone in so many ways.

The phone started as an extension of the computer (iTunes was required for backup, app purchases, and syncing). The Watch is following that progression, iterating toward a stand-alone device.

Re: Apple Reports Declining Profits and Slowing Growth Again

#286
post #262
post #233

NY Times made a mess of this story and slanted it toward their agendas. Horrible reporting. Apple beat most estimates. Revenues grew. All time high revenue from services. Forward guidance was raised. https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2019/07/apple-reports-third-q...

That's a bit spun too, though. Revenue is up just .93%. Net income is down 12.7%. And they beat the estimates because the estimates were expecting bad news, as the overall trend has been stagnant for about two years. Those just aren't good numbers for a company that, over the past decade, has been literally the most profitable in history. They aren't "bad" numbers, but for Apple they're sort of a disaster. The iPhone…

To (hopefully) noone's surprise. The innovation mostly hit a brick wall and Cook just seems intent on squeezing every last dollar out of incremental improvements to the iPhone until he sails into the sunset

Re: Apple Reports Declining Profits and Slowing Growth Again

#288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> FaceID had zero issues unlocking the phone It will let a sibling in too, or at least at a point in the past.

Honest question, when you say "sibling", do you mean an identical twin? Because if yes, then fingerprint sensor won't save you from that either. After googling for a bit, I think I found what you have been referencing. Turns out, FaceID learns as it goes, even from non-successful attempts. So if every time your non-identical-twin sister tries to unlock your phone using FaceID, fails, and then you immediately unlock i…

Just brothers: https://hackernoon.com/my-younger-brother-can-access-my-ipho...

Re: Apple Reports Declining Profits and Slowing Growth Again

#289
post #233

NY Times made a mess of this story and slanted it toward their agendas. Horrible reporting. Apple beat most estimates. Revenues grew. All time high revenue from services. Forward guidance was raised. https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2019/07/apple-reports-third-q...

>slanted it toward their agendas. They do this a lot. It is (rightfully) pointed out any time a right leaning website story is posted, with the whole "Note this is from X publication, and they are right leaning, so take that into consideration" comment. For some reason NYT seems immune to this criticism though.

Likely because there are publications that are SO slanted, agenda-based and poorly sourced it's more important to note.

Re: Apple Reports Declining Profits and Slowing Growth Again

#290
post #52
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 even older than you apparently, but I just don’t see the attraction of the bezel-less design. I like bezels, they: - let me hold the phone without blocking the screen - act as a buffer for cracks: a smaller crack in the corner (the most common kind in my experience) won’t affect your experience. - mean I don’t have to deal with notches or curved displays Privilege check: I have large hands, I can single-handedly…

I agree, especially on iPad, a bezel is a necessary place to rest a thumb to hold the device
Post reply on HN