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Is Apple Losing Its Shine After Steve Jobs?

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Re: Is Apple Losing Its Shine After Steve Jobs?

#41

Post by taligent »

jpxxx wrote: post #29

So tedious. Apple is extremely well positioned in front of almost every mass trend happening in consumer electronics. They are sitting on a tenth of a trillion dollars in cash. They have content deals with more companies in more places than almost anyone else on Earth. They are ending investment in unfruitful markets. They have a rapidly converging consumer platform that has essentially no identifiable competitive we…

> Their push for a tax holiday is going to go over extremely poorly in an election year.

Apple is not the only company requesting this and most of the discussions have been behind closed door. It hasn't been an issue previously and won't be an issue in the future.

>Their extremely slow iPhone hardware update cycle leaves them vulnerable to fast-evolving competitors and a single bad product will poison the well for years.

The update cycle has been in place for a number of generations now and every successive update has been more successful than the last. So this is factually baseless. Also many people like the fact that Apple supports their devices a lot longer than Android OEMs.

>The colossal amount of value stored nowadays in a single Apple ID means the damage from a security breach or intrusion is astronomical.

No different than if your online banking, Amazon, Google login was compromised. And infinitely more 'value' can be obtained by simply stealing a person's laptop or phone.

> Apple has nothing interesting or heartening to say about their law enforcement policies vis a vis the data they collect.

No evidence that this is an issue for most people. Telcos you would argue have a longer and deeper history of compliance with federal enforcement agencies and there hasn't been much of a uproar about it.

> Stitched leatherette Contacts.

Again factually baseless that this has impacted Apple in any way. Overwhelming popularity of recent iOS and OSX updates discredit your belief that it is an issue. Not to mention Apple has had 'unique' UI metaphors in place since 10.0 beta with Aqua, Pinstripes, Brushed Metal etc.

Re: Is Apple Losing Its Shine After Steve Jobs?

#43

Post by jmduke »

dfc wrote: post #31
jmduke wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The iPad was released less than three years ago. What's your definition of 'a long time'?

Why do you assume that the problem is the definition of "long time" and not the definition of "lust after." It seems that you think everyone is lusting after the iPad? I know I am not lusting after the iPad, but I'm not a mac lover. The iPad has certainly not matched the lust inducing levels of the iphone or ipod or osx.

The iPad held 73% of the tablet market last year, most of which came from market entrants who entered solely for the iPad. I don't know what by metric you're judging 'lust' (hopefully it's not just your desire), but its hard to imagine a more impressive performance.

Re: Is Apple Losing Its Shine After Steve Jobs?

#44

Post by drumdance »

taligent wrote: post #37
KevinEldon wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Steve Jobs suggests that Apple didn't innovate while he wasn't there ( http://www.macrumors.com/2011/09/19/steve-jobs-apple-almost-... ). The question is then does Apple, without Jobs, have the visionaries and the management team supporting those visionaries to pioneer very specific markets to continue earning billions in the future. I'd guess that over the next few years a Google Glass-style device is ready for the…

> Google Glass-style device is ready for the market and some sort of car-friendly voice-controlled heads-up-display I am sorry but anyone who thinks devices like these are going to be some wild success are ignorant of the realities of our society. People do not want to be recorded by random third parties and existing privacy laws in many countries respect that. As such the current use case of the device is likely to…

People do not want to be recorded by random third parties

...unless they get tremendous (perceived) value from it. Facebook, anyone?

Re: Is Apple Losing Its Shine After Steve Jobs?

#45

Post by taligent »

jonhendry wrote: post #3

Two words: iPod Socks.

Actually this and that giant iPod Speaker was probably two of the most subtle yet genius decisions Apple ever made.

They demonstrated to accessory manufacturers that there was a lucrative market for them to get participate in. Not to mention putting "facts on the ground" about expected sales, profit margins etc for them to build their product strategy around.

Re: Is Apple Losing Its Shine After Steve Jobs?

#46

Post by shadesandcolour »

kevinh wrote: post #14

Apple has done some things that I don't think are wise since the death of Steve Jobs - the "new iPad" branding, the new Apple ads, the potential new form factors developer have to design for. However, they also made some decisions that I thought were stupid when Steve Jobs was there, such as releasing the iPad (which I thought would fail for sure). I'm just waiting to see how everything shakes out before I pass judgm…

What is wrong with their branding. Sure the genius ads didn't go off that well, but I didn't find the message to be that bad. And as for the "new iPad", I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Re: Is Apple Losing Its Shine After Steve Jobs?

#47

Post by dfc »

drumdance wrote: post #44
taligent wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Google Glass-style device is ready for the market and some sort of car-friendly voice-controlled heads-up-display I am sorry but anyone who thinks devices like these are going to be some wild success are ignorant of the realities of our society. People do not want to be recorded by random third parties and existing privacy laws in many countries respect that. As such the current use case of the device is likely to…

People do not want to be recorded by random third parties ...unless they get tremendous (perceived) value from it. Facebook, anyone?

People do not recognize the privacy invasion of using facebook. Try and follow a stranger around with a video camera, I doubt it goes over well.

Re: Is Apple Losing Its Shine After Steve Jobs?

#48

Post by dfc »

jmduke wrote: post #43
dfc wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you assume that the problem is the definition of "long time" and not the definition of "lust after." It seems that you think everyone is lusting after the iPad? I know I am not lusting after the iPad, but I'm not a mac lover. The iPad has certainly not matched the lust inducing levels of the iphone or ipod or osx.

The iPad held 73% of the tablet market last year, most of which came from market entrants who entered solely for the iPad. I don't know what by metric you're judging 'lust' (hopefully it's not just your desire), but its hard to imagine a more impressive performance.

Stats without footnotes are as useful as my anecdotal evidence. Moreover how big is that market?

Re: Is Apple Losing Its Shine After Steve Jobs?

#49

Post by jpxxx »

taligent wrote: post #41
jpxxx wrote: post #29

So tedious. Apple is extremely well positioned in front of almost every mass trend happening in consumer electronics. They are sitting on a tenth of a trillion dollars in cash. They have content deals with more companies in more places than almost anyone else on Earth. They are ending investment in unfruitful markets. They have a rapidly converging consumer platform that has essentially no identifiable competitive we…

> Their push for a tax holiday is going to go over extremely poorly in an election year. Apple is not the only company requesting this and most of the discussions have been behind closed door. It hasn't been an issue previously and won't be an issue in the future. >Their extremely slow iPhone hardware update cycle leaves them vulnerable to fast-evolving competitors and a single bad product will poison the well for ye…

I only brought up Contacts as a joke. :) It's a little crass for my tastes but meaningless in the greater scheme.

I agree that the law enforcement issues and tax holiday aren't really registering in the public consciousness, but they're important to me and the PR downsides for Apple could be significant.

I'm not backing down on the phone cycle or the security issues. A poorly received iPhone loses Apple the substantial market for "status" phones, poisons the next two years of 'budget' iPhones, and takes them months to a year to recover from. Those aren't small stakes.

And the security thing could be an apocalypse. Think bigger than just a single ID: someone finds out a way to silently break their way into Apple's infrastructure and start pulling databases. It's not just your Gmail or easily reversible banking information walking out the door: it's every text conversation you've ever had with a loved one. It's your voice, it's your passbook, it's your email settings, it's your contact book, your calendar, your billing address, you name it. It's all tied to a single ID and password. And there's hundreds of millions of them. That's incredible value, and there will be those who will go after it. The consequences for a major breach are severe.

Re: Is Apple Losing Its Shine After Steve Jobs?

#50

Post by pooriaazimi »

dfc wrote: post #48
jmduke wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The iPad held 73% of the tablet market last year, most of which came from market entrants who entered solely for the iPad. I don't know what by metric you're judging 'lust' (hopefully it's not just your desire), but its hard to imagine a more impressive performance.

Stats without footnotes are as useful as my anecdotal evidence. Moreover how big is that market?

They've sold 84 million iPads, 44 million of which were sold in the past 8-10 months.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/259829/apple_earnings_disappo...

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