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I see the graphics. I see the app store affiliate links. I do not see the source for the data upon which the graphics are based listed.
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>Then why not connect all those thoughts together? If it was so easy Who are you responding to? I didn't say it was "easy". I further said that Apple is a software company, not a hardware company. They do software well. Their hardware superiority is 90% myth, 10% reality. There were excellent Windows Mobile devices with high resolution displays, better processors, more RAM, and on and on, long before Apple brought th…
Sure, they buy a lot of components off the shelf. But they are extremely involved in the design and manufacturing process of their products, and often work with the manufacturers to push the manufacturing technology forward to meet their design goals (machine milling is nothing new, but machine milling a $999 laptop requires quite a bit of innovation). Unlike many other companies, Apple _doesn't_ just take various te…
How you could you possibly extrapolate that, attributing it to me?
I propose no such thing. Electronics is a low margin arena, and this is great for consumers. High margin companies like Monster cater, arguably, to suckers.
So when someone makes a lot of margin in electronics they're usually serving the sucker market, or they're offering something other than electronics. Apple puts good software on otherwise vanilla hardware, and that's what their differentiation is. It's how they get their margin.
There's a cert cult essence to Apple that makes it impossible to discuss their products. The number of faults in their devices is legendary, and there is that telling moment of truth: When a new anointed device comes out, suddenly there's a mass realization that the last device really was kind of shoddy (see the 3GS when the 4 came out).
There just isn't anything special about them. There really isn't. Motorola has made any number of brilliantly engineered products...but it's just Motorola so who cares, right?
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Apple has said barely anything about A4. All the 'misleading' and 'deception' you mention comes from people speculating about what A4 is and isn't.
Apple feature the A4 regularly in keynotes, product introduction videos and websites. They used Samsung ARM chips in every previous iPhone and were happy to leave it at that. Since the iPad they have been presenting the A4 as "custom-designed by Apple engineers to be extremely powerful yet extremely power efficient." This could be considered flat out lies, at the very least it gives the wrong impression. If you want…
"...custom-designed by Apple engineers to be extremely powerful yet extremely power efficient." is 100% valid. Picking certain features from a Samsung catalog is what the general consensus is they did, and that doesn't contradict their statement at all. I can get on a website right now and make a custom designed t-shirt or even a custom designed candy bar by picking the ingredients I want. If I tell someone I then made a custom-designed candy bar, will they call me a liar because I didn't make the chocolate and all the ingredients from scratch or because someone else cooked them and put them together to make the candy bar? Of course not. Apple engineers picked the features of the SoC they wanted, ones they felt would give them the best efficiency for how they were using them, and that is their A4. No more, no less, and exactly what they say it is. Featuring the A4 doesn't mean they are giving any details about it. No one is telling 'flat out lies'.
This is my biggest question (and I'd love thoughts from HN people on it); if Android is mostly seen on handsets with very small margins that compete on price with almost identical features... who's paying for the R&D to keep up with Apple's innovations? That question assumes that innovation is important in the smartphone sector. That may not be the case I guess. I'm just trying to understand the end situation as best…
Apple is responsible for shockingly little of the innovation in the smartphone field. They didn't create their processor (though they managed to brand it and fool a lot of people for a while). They didn't create the GPU. They didn't create the "Retina display" or their memory or their touchscreen sensor. They are a software company that other companies -- like LG and Samsung -- supply with hardware. The electronics m…
Apple changed the "face" of smartphones; this is what Android looked like before the iPhone came along: http://gizmodo.com/334909/google-android-prototype-in-the-wi...
Styluses and resistive touchscreens were resigned to the scrap heap soon after.
Apple didn't invent multi-touch either, but they moved gestures from a futuristic novelty in Minority report and Black & White into something that regular people use every day. Swiping and pinching have entered our UI lexicon with amazing speed.
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Sure, they buy a lot of components off the shelf. But they are extremely involved in the design and manufacturing process of their products, and often work with the manufacturers to push the manufacturing technology forward to meet their design goals (machine milling is nothing new, but machine milling a $999 laptop requires quite a bit of innovation). Unlike many other companies, Apple _doesn't_ just take various te…
"By your logic, other PC/mobile manufacturers should have similar profit margins to Apple, but they don't. " How you could you possibly extrapolate that, attributing it to me? I propose no such thing. Electronics is a low margin arena, and this is great for consumers. High margin companies like Monster cater, arguably, to suckers. So when someone makes a lot of margin in electronics they're usually serving the sucker…
"You could directly attribute the fact that Apple isn't responsible for most of that hardware R&D for their high profit margins. They know to buy the cutting edge from the rest of the industry, put some software on it, and they've got a product."
I read this to mean that Apples high margins were primarily due to their offloading their hardware business to others. And I only pointed out that this is only _partly_ responsible for Apples high margins. But I see that I've read you incorrectly.
I never heard anyone say that the 3GS was shoddy when the iPhone 4 came out. Even before the iPhone 4 was released, everyone agreed that the screen resolution, camera etc. was a generation or two behind, and most reviewers had started recommending other phones with more features.
Like I said, some people "get" or appreciate Apples product design, and some don't. The fact that you're say that there's nothing special about their products shows that you don't. There's nothing wrong with that, just as there's nothing wrong with me not wearing designer clothing and being unable to tell the difference betewen a generic and a designer suit.
But as you say, it makes it impossible to discuss their products. Which is why this discussion is pointless :)
If Apples advantage was something very measurable, for instance if all their laptops had 20GHz processors and 256GB RAM, it would be obvious to everyone, including their competitors, why they were able to make so much money with such a small market share.
But it's difficult to quantify what "good product design" is. I can give countless examples of small details that Apples designers have thought about that other laptop makers haven't, but this is simply irrelevant to people who don't appreciate that. Similarly, a BMW owner could point to lots of small features and details that they like about their car, but others simply see an overpriced car with high maintenance costs.
Still, unlike Monster cables, you can point to many features or details that you simply don't get with other cars that still do the job of transporting people. The question is simply whether someone is willing (and able) to pay for the added design, features, and comfort.
I think that Apples success shows that there are enough people who _do_ care about it, and I think that's a big reason for their high profit margins.
Finally, I think you'll see that Motorola has won a lot of praise and attention for some of their better designed products, even though Apple is the current media darling.