brucemc

cbpp said:

What app caused an alarm to go off? Apple Watch built in heart monitor or something else? I did not know there was an alarm feature.

When a (quite) high heart rate is detected, but the wearer doesn't appear to be doing any vigorous exercise, the Apple Watch will raise an alarm.  It is a relatively new s/w feature implemented in a dot release of WatchOS 4.

JayVee said:

I'd have thought they would have bought back shares more aggressively since they only bought back 8.7 billion dollars worth this quarter where the stock price was heavily discounted, but let's see what Maestri says during the conference call.

We shall see if they state why.  My view is that when Apple mgmt became aware of the sales shortfall, they stopped the share repurchases as the company was privy to significant information that the market did not have.  It would have been a magnet for lawsuits.  I expect Apple would have resumed purchasing after the Jan. 2nd disclosure.

gmgravytrain said:

brucemc said:

lewchenko said:

They are still delusional to think it will be back at 236 within a year I think. 

and I would disagree that the post above that the  markets are usually down this time of year. Quieter and flatter perhaps , but not down as much as they are. That’s due to exceptional circumstances this year and in apples case a series of bad news to go on top. 

I got lucky and sold everything I had at 227 (main reason for selling was the sky high prices they were now charging.. smelled fishy)

Key question is whether to get back in yet.  Gut says it’s gonna go lower (150 easily) before it slowly recovers back to 200 by mid next year. 

But it I do agree with the analysts that apple has a problem. And cranking up the prices is not going to work in the long run of unit sales keep falling (which they will at the prices they are now charging) . All stocks are priced for future profit, hence why it’s falling. Hiding the unit sales after years of showing them also says you have something to hide. 

It's true.  Apple has absolutely no clue about where to go next.  If only they had invested in wearables or services or something...

I'm a bit puzzled as to why Apple didn't see this coming years ago and forked away from iPhone dependency. Smartphone market saturation was clearly going to happen with all those cheap Android smartphones being cranked out 24/7/365. Apple will still be the most profitable smartphone maker but it seems that's not important to big investors. If Apple is struggling then how do all those other smartphone makers survive? That's something I can't quite figure out.

If by struggling, you mean that Apple is likely (per their own traditionally conservative forecast) to post record revenue in this Q1 of fiscal 2019, then I guess that is a problem indeed!

Before you respond back and tell me "sure, but what about the future", lets try to put a few things in context:

1) iPhone sales are quite likely to be seeing some declines - too much evidence - but that is likely in the single digits %.  While higher pricing could be a factor, it could also be related to things like:
   a) Lengthening upgrade cycle, due to iOS12, battery replacement program, overall quality & features keeping users happy.  These are good things for user satisfaction.
   b) Some users that would by an "XR" (e.g. who purchased an iPhone 8 last year) might be put off by its size (no 4.7" chassis size - too big for my preference), and some wanting familiar TouchID
   c) Value of iPhone 8

The point: Nothing is pointing to sales going off a cliff (user sat is very high).  iPhone user base continues to grow, though not as much (some people mistakenly believe that if unit sales drop, it means the installed/user base must be dropping which is of course not the case at all).  The iPhone market, like the Mac, can stabilize at a very high level of overall sales for years & years.  Growth might be over, but the $billions of sales remain.

2) Apple is investing in new products.  They always have.  Apple Watch is growing well (40-50% YoY increases estimated, prices up).  AirPods are off the chart.  You can bet AR glasses are the top next product.  Additional focus on health.

3) Services are growing strongly, and while a slowdown can happen due to slower growth of the user base, that is going to be offset by additional services (video, news) as well as increases with music, cloud, care.

4) Fourth, and certainly not least.  From a stock perspective, Apple is buying back about $20B per quarter.  As the stock drops, they are able to buy back even more shares for same amount.  They might even increase the purchases in the short term.  This will cause an increase in EPS that - when the fear fades out - will be a catalyst for stock price rise.  Even traders who do not understand Apple react when EPS growth continues in double digits quarter in & out.

Eric_WVGG said:

The “flat button” on my watch kind of sticks. I do a lot of bouldering, suspect that sweat plus chalk dust are to blame. (Climbing is also responsible for a nice little scrape up in the corner, guess I’ll be going with stainless steel for the sapphire screen next time...)

If I don’t rinse the watch periodically after some sweaty workouts, or just plain work, I find similar.  

I just rinse with warm running water, pushing the crown and side button while doing it. No problems. 

muthuk_vanalingam said:

cali said:

I don't understand why anyone in their right mind would choose an iPhone knockoff. Unless money is a problem I can't wrap
my head around it. 

i) Access to File System (The most important one. I know everyone in this forum would laugh at this point - only to be hypocrites 1 year later when Apple opens it up in iphones as well, apart from opening it up in iPads this year)

ii) Better battery life (of course not through optimization, but by use of larger batteries)

iii) Customization (yes, even basic customization options can go a long way in improving user experience, which is just NOT possible in IOS)

And a salute to the author for sharing his viewpoints openly, particularly about Android - which WILL infuriate MANY people in this forum.

It doesn't infuriate me in the slightest...though you sound a bit defensive...

I think the author did a good job of highlighting what he (and I am sure many millions more) "prefer" about Android phones (customization, widgets, Google services integration).  Unfortunate about his product defect on the 6 - based on my experiences (personal & via friends/family) and reviews, Apple devices last quite well absent physical damages, and Apple is good about replacements / fixes when broader issues.  But there are going to be issues for certain with millions of devices.

A friend of mine has a Galaxy S7 Edge (high end device as much $$ as an iPhone), and what I see there:
- Overall good phone, great screen, good camera.  He is quite happy with it.
- Fingerprint scanner was never as reliable as TouchID (nor as fast), and has degraded in accuracy in just over a year.  He doesn't use it anymore.  I use TouchID at least 50x every day (and while I have an iPhone 7 now, I had a 5s for 3 years and TouchID was as good as the day I bought it).
- Very difficult to get any OS updates
- Responsiveness has slowed a bit (not much) in the year+ that he has had it.

To each their own.  My experience with Apple has been excellent - for Macs, iPhones and iPads (and Apple Watches). Build quality is great, useful life is excellent, security is top notch, ecosystem and useful services continues to grow with time.  

Some may laugh, but I *honestly and truly* trust Apple far more than any other tech company with my security and privacy. Their business model aligns with it.  Google's aligns with security (for the data they collect), but not with privacy.  Same for FB.  I am not sure Amazon's aligns with either.  Right now, the masses don't seem too concerned with either security or privacy, but I am not so sure that will remain the case forever.  For decades people weren't really concerned with the health effects of smoking either.

zone said:

Interesting as all the negative people who said this wouldn't work. Just like the Apple Home Pod speaker right now. When will people learn that its Apple slow march to perfection that makes their products so good? Never enough credit for their accomplishments...

Indeed, the Apple Watch must have been the most derided Apple product (for probably 2 years) in decades - unquestionably called a failure / flop by the tech-blog-o-sphere echo chamber.  Yet here in its 3rd year of availability it is showing massive growth (50% yoy growth for many quarters), hitting some strong absolute numbers (estimated of course!), and with increasing engagement and usefulness.  Some estimates put AW unit sales at more than Amazon Echo products over the last 3 years, at many times the ASP.

While not as universally panned, AirPods had its fair share of negative stories in the first few months (truly wireless done by another company first, expensive for wireless buds, only one size, too small - I could lose them, only works with all features in the Apple ecosystem, etc)

HomePod is the current child.  While I don't expect that product to have the same sales trajectory as AW and AirPods, I am sure in 3 years the units (estimated:) sold will be much higher than the negative Nancies proclaimed would be the case.

harry wild said:

meh, announcement!  I am guessing with same 2GB LPDDR3 too!  LOL!  You get exactly what you pay for with this educational version.

I hear ya!  Still no user replaceable battery or ability to do your own RAM upgrades, let alone a proper USB port to support peripherals!  What is Apple thinking...?

No wonder Apple is in such dire trouble...

crosslad said:

Apple sales in China are down purely as a tit for tat response to Trump putting a ban on Huawei. The Chinese government has told its people to stop buying Apple products. Once the trade dispute is over China will return to buying IPhones. 

A large number of companies and markets showed a significant downturn in sales in China in the 4th quarter.  The gov'ts official stats (always believed to be overstated to be the most positive possible) said it was the slowest in almost 30 years.  This is not an Apple specific thing (maybe some people don't purchase due to nationalist sentiment, but the big picture is the economic decline).

christopher126 said:

This may sound ethnocentric, but I'm glad I don't live in China and it is steadily moving down my list of places I'd like to visit.

Best

As a Canadian, I will not be visiting China anytime in the planned future (work or leisure), as the Chinese gov't has been detaining / imprisoning Canadians (13 so far) since the Huawei CFO was arrested on Canadian soil, based upon an arrest warrant from the USA (with whom we have an extradition treaty).  Funny how China is extracting is revenge (how mature of them) on Canadians, but not on Americans who issued the arrest warrant.

sog35 said:

DAMB.

This looks real. Looks like iPhone8 will have touchID on the back. YUCK.

makes me wonder what Tim Cook does with that $10 billion R&D budget? Probably spends half of it on his dumb ass social crusades.

There's the old Sog - sh*tting on Cook over a rumour...