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Apple's Middle Age

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Re: Apple's Middle Age

#31

Post by maxsilver »

everdev wrote: post #6

My Windows devices since 97 were consistent top of the line and rarely lasted more than 2 years before they slowed to an unbearable speed. In 2012 I switched to Mac and still use the same MacBook Pro which still runs as quick as it did 6 years ago. It was a huge investment at the time but turned out to be cheaper than the 4+ Windows machine I likely would have cycled through not to mention the boot time and performan…

That was true in the late 90s. It's not really true anymore.

I built a Windows PC using parts from MicroCenter back in 2014. Core i5-4690K, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD, GTX 970 running Windows 8. It was around $1400 USD at that time, if I remember correctly.

It's now 2018. That same PC with all it's original hardware, is now running Windows 10 just as quickly as always. Not only is the performance still great, but my 4-year-old mid-range PC still outperforms many brand new PCs today. (It's still slightly faster than the current 21in 4K i5 iMac, for example).

If you had bought a Windows machine in 2012, it would not have "slowed down" the way your 90's computers did, and could still use it at it's full original performance today (just like your Mac).

Re: Apple's Middle Age

#32

Post by username223 »

scarface74 wrote: post #4
lukateake wrote: post #2

[A]s a general rule, challengers pursue interoperability while incumbents strive for incompatibility. This is Strategy 101: seek to fight battles where you have the greatest advantage. Should Apple buy a wireless carrier?

No. If Apple bought a mobile carrier it would be competing with its customers. Most phones are sold through carriers - meaning the carriers are buying iPhones not the end user. Besides, Apple sells phones worldwide. What would be the benefit of just buying a carrier in the US? Netflix made a similar calculation years ago. Netflix actually created what is now the Roku, but decided to spin it off to a separate company…

> What would be the benefit of just buying a carrier in the US?

Buying a carrier would indeed be a bad move, both for competing with customers and maintaining a lot of infrastructure, but I could see Apple becoming an MVNO. Wireless companies are right down there with Comcast and the airlines in terms of customer satisfaction, so I would guess there are plenty of people willing to pay a bit more for a less hostile carrier.

Re: Apple's Middle Age

#33

Post by scarface74 »

symlinkk wrote: post #18

The author seems to praise the vendor lock-in that Apple imposes upon its customers as being a good business move and a sign that Apple has "matured", without really offering any hard facts to back it up. I'm going to offer an opinion of my own without any facts to back it up. Vendor lock-in may be successful in the short term, but interoperability is successful in the long-term. The internet would have never took of…

How much of a "longer term" view is needed than 40+ years? Apple has used this strategy since day one.

Re: Apple's Middle Age

#34

Post by bryanlarsen »

arximboldi wrote: post #13
bryanlarsen wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMO, that's more to do with Intel than to do with Microsoft and Apple. Sandy Bridge, released in 2011, was the last Intel processor that was more than 10% faster than previous generations. We used to see ~25% generational speedups from Intel. Since 2011 we've only seen 5-10% speedups.

Well, when I was using Windows more than 10 years ago... formatting your computer every 2 years was a good way to maintain performance, otherwise it would just slow down due to disk fragmentation + crapware accumulation. On Linux I could also just install the OS once and use it until I upgraded the machine... like in 6 years.

When I was using Linux more than 10 years ago I didn't even format my disks when upgrading my machine, I just moved the boot drive from the old machine to the new one.

OTOH, I've reformatted my 2012 Linux machine twice since I purchased it, which is twice more than I've formatted my Windows machine over the same period. Granted my Linux box is much more heavily used, but...

Re: Apple's Middle Age

#35

Post by ekianjo »

jballanc wrote: post #8

Any article that speculates on Apple's future viability in the market would be remiss not to mention Apple's unprecedented cash hoard. Currently, Apple is sitting on $126B in net tangible assets. With 100,000 full-time equivalent employees, that means that Apple could pay every one of their full-time equivalent employees (which, as a reminder, includes a large number of retail employees) an average yearly salary of $…

The ISS is going to be de-orbited by 2020. You don't have much time left to visit it, and NASA does not operate any shuttle service anymore.

Re: Apple's Middle Age

#36

Post by ekianjo »

awinder wrote: post #17
gergles wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Even iPhone X shows they can still bet big with their flagship. Does it? The iPhone X (which is a great phone and one that I own) is a Galaxy S8 with a Face ID scanner. They didn't "bet big" on it, it was the only logical place to take their market.

Also doesn't have that Bixby shovelware or exploding battery feature. I get that a lot of Samsung phones are shipped and sold, but there's a difference in shipping shit at scale and shipping quality engineering at scale, and it's a tale told in decades, not single years.

> exploding battery feature

Stop spreading misinformation. That did not occur with the S8 at all since its release. http://bgr.com/2017/06/12/galaxy-s8-battery-explosions/

Re: Apple's Middle Age

#37

Post by fhood »

maxsilver wrote: post #31
everdev wrote: post #6

My Windows devices since 97 were consistent top of the line and rarely lasted more than 2 years before they slowed to an unbearable speed. In 2012 I switched to Mac and still use the same MacBook Pro which still runs as quick as it did 6 years ago. It was a huge investment at the time but turned out to be cheaper than the 4+ Windows machine I likely would have cycled through not to mention the boot time and performan…

That was true in the late 90s. It's not really true anymore. I built a Windows PC using parts from MicroCenter back in 2014. Core i5-4690K, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD, GTX 970 running Windows 8. It was around $1400 USD at that time, if I remember correctly. It's now 2018. That same PC with all it's original hardware, is now running Windows 10 just as quickly as always. Not only is the performance still great, but my 4-year-…

I don't know if I can agree with you on this. In ~2016 I built a PC (i7, 24GB RAM, 1.5TB ssd, gtx 1080) and my 2014 17 inch mbp has slowly been closing the gap. This is probably more due to software optimizations than hardware, but things just open and close more smoothly and quickly these days on the laptop.

I think the real issue is that Windows hasn't been effectively utilizing the RAM I've given it.

Re: Apple's Middle Age

#38

Post by draw_down »

jballanc wrote: post #8

Any article that speculates on Apple's future viability in the market would be remiss not to mention Apple's unprecedented cash hoard. Currently, Apple is sitting on $126B in net tangible assets. With 100,000 full-time equivalent employees, that means that Apple could pay every one of their full-time equivalent employees (which, as a reminder, includes a large number of retail employees) an average yearly salary of $…

Come on. You’re not saying anything.

Re: Apple's Middle Age

#39

Post by energybar »

ekianjo wrote: post #35
jballanc wrote: post #8

Any article that speculates on Apple's future viability in the market would be remiss not to mention Apple's unprecedented cash hoard. Currently, Apple is sitting on $126B in net tangible assets. With 100,000 full-time equivalent employees, that means that Apple could pay every one of their full-time equivalent employees (which, as a reminder, includes a large number of retail employees) an average yearly salary of $…

The ISS is going to be de-orbited by 2020. You don't have much time left to visit it, and NASA does not operate any shuttle service anymore.

Prolonged till 2024 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Space_Station_pr...

Re: Apple's Middle Age

#40

Post by greedo »

adventured wrote: post #20
jballanc wrote: post #8

Any article that speculates on Apple's future viability in the market would be remiss not to mention Apple's unprecedented cash hoard. Currently, Apple is sitting on $126B in net tangible assets. With 100,000 full-time equivalent employees, that means that Apple could pay every one of their full-time equivalent employees (which, as a reminder, includes a large number of retail employees) an average yearly salary of $…

That's not actually how things unfold when a company gets into trouble. Your scenario is the perfect, idealized, never-happens outcome. We have dozens of historical examples at this point, from elite, massive corporations unraveling: what they basically never do, is the strictly rational idealized scenario. What actually happens is closer to chaos loaded with self-interest and stupidity by management and the board. T…

"Their earnings haven't increased in years."

I'd love to own more companies that have this earnings profile for the last eight years. They've gone from $14B in 2010 to over $48B last year. [1]

[1] https://www.statista.com/statistics/267728/apples-net-income...

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