I don't want to rejoice too much, but this couldn't have happened to a better company. They're being out-Samsunged by Xiaomi on the low end, and Apple's in the process of eliminating the potential for others to make a profit on the high end.
Agreed. It is just such a shame Apple still have to use their production facilities.
It's also a shame Samsung still has to use Apple's R&D facility.
Everybody should boycott all Samsung products, tv, refrigerator, etc, not just cell phone. They have very hazardous environment in the semiconductor fab and workers die all the time. Even last year, some worker died in Korea because of a gas leak and they didn't even report it to the police for a whole day. That's how arrogant they are. Hundreds of workers in their fab got leukemia and they were denying that they are work related and refusing to compensate them.
Still really astonishing to think that one company can command 86% of the profits in any area. It was mind boggling when it was just two companies but this...there can't be many precedents to this.
Maybe the iPod era, Apple pretty much dominated every sector of that. If you watch the keynotes where they'd intro a new model (Mini, Shuffle, etc) Jobs would show a pie chart of market share, say which section the new model was targeted at, and then Apple would begin dominating that sector.
Quote:
Originally Posted by pfisher
Refurbished is the way to go for us. For instance, we picked up a refurbished Polk Audio sound bar, from eBay I believe, for less than half of the regular online price. Also, it wasn't one of the newest versions, so it was like one-third the price. There are great deals out there all of the time. Just have to go fishing.
The speakers I bought were the 2013 models, which sounded the same as the '14 models but didn't have removable grilles (I prefer the '13 look anyway). Picked them up new in box for $75 shipped on eBay (retail is about 130-140). Paired them with a used TEAC CD player/receiver for another $50 and ended up with a system that sounds much more expensive than it really is. Most of the time I just play CD's on it, but it's also hooked into my TV and I use my G4 Cube as a music server(TV has a convenient VGA port), so it outputs to my system as well. One of the best buys I ever made.
Samsung has zero brand loyalty and very little stickiness to keep people coming back. What is the Samsung ecosystem. What do I get with a Samsung phone that I couldn't get with an LG or HTC phone?
Agreed. It is just such a shame Apple still have to use their production facilities.
Whoa there DC! Samsung is key to Apple's success. And TC intended it this way.
Two of Apple's most important strategic resources is its fab contracts and relationships with Samsung and TSMC. These are central to Apple's annual "tick tock" advances in SoC and AP chip designs.
This is TC's genius. The supply chain. In chips, he now is coordinating advances in 2 and soon 3 or 4 major fabs developing for and supplying Apple's increasingly profitable innovation engine. He's figured out how to incentivize supply partners to invent and innovate at Apple scale, speed, and brilliance.
Bravo for Tim and his brilliant diplomacy in creating a win/win for Apple/Samsung chips and parts and also, simultaneously dominating Samsung in the premium device market.
You can't beat an Andrew Jones design for the price. I have the BS21-LR's he designed and they're absolutely amazing...
Looks like the bar has BT issues, but that's a technical issue, not a sound issue.
I got a Samsung sound bar when I got my LED Samsung TV and talk about a lemon design. It has a slight, but audible, hiss sound. Got it replaced. Same thing. Simply a bad design.
I got a Samsung sound bar when I got my LED Samsung TV and talk about a lemon design. It has a slight, but audible, hiss sound. Got it replaced. Same thing. Simply a bad design.
The TV is good though.
How's the sound from the TV?
My parents recently bought a nice LED Samsun TV, they spent a little much because they got conned into the SMART label, but it's a decent TV overall given the bloat.
HOWEVER, the sound from it is god awful. Similar to what you experienced with the SS Soundbar. They ended up purchasing a sound bar (from another maker) just because it wasn't even do-able.
Whoa there DC! Samsung is key to Apple's success. And TC intended it this way.
Two of Apple's most important strategic resources is its fab contracts and relationships with Samsung and TSMC. These are central to Apple's annual "tick tock" advances in SoC and AP chip designs.
This is TC's genius. The supply chain. In chips, he now is coordinating advances in 2 and soon 3 or 4 major fabs developing for and supplying Apple's increasingly profitable innovation engine. He's figured out how to incentivize supply partners to invent and innovate at Apple scale, speed, and brilliance.
Bravo for Tim and his brilliant diplomacy in creating a win/win for Apple/Samsung chips and parts and also, simultaneously dominating Samsung in the premium device market.
... in a slightly different way as well.
The market research that Samsung does for Apple. There would be no iPhone 6+ (or even iPhone 5), or iPad mini if there hadn't been Samsung and others putting out 100's of marketing tester kits in the phone, laptop and an tablet areas. The occasional local maxima give Apple guidance on the movement of the market.
Apple can lower the risk by just monitoring all the different flavors and models and features. I really don't think Apple would have pushed a 5.5 inch if the 5-6" phablets hadn't gained some semblance of market share. Apple needs this 'competitive research' to define and refine it's product line directions, at no cost to Apple.
Samsung has zero brand loyalty and very little stickiness to keep people coming back. What is the Samsung ecosystem. What do I get with a Samsung phone that I couldn't get with an LG or HTC phone?
And that is 100% of the danger of competing on cost.
If this were an article about Apple the ‘death spiral clock' would have been started by now. Only Apple can be perpetually doomed.
Actually, Apple is only one quarter away from collapsing. If Apple sells about 70 million iPhones this quarter and then drops slightly below 50 million iPhones in the next quarter, that's an unhealthy sales drop and Apple will be headed on a downward trend toward zero sales. It will be claimed that everyone who ever wanted an iPhone already has one and Apple's iPhone market will have a reached a total saturation point. That, added to increased competition from China's Xiaomi and Huawei, pretty much puts Apple out of the smartphone business. Apple just got lucky this year and somehow deceived consumers into buying iPhones they didn't really need. Only Apple is considered building their business on a road to inevitable failure. That much has been decreed.
The market research that Samsung does for Apple. There would be no iPhone 6+ (or even iPhone 5), or iPad mini if there hadn't been Samsung and others putting out 100's of marketing tester kits in the phone, laptop and an tablet areas. The occasional local maxima give Apple guidance on the movement of the market.
Apple can lower the risk by just monitoring all the different flavors and models and features. I really don't think Apple would have pushed a 5.5 inch if the 5-6" phablets hadn't gained some semblance of market share. Apple needs this 'competitive research' to define and refine it's product line directions, at no cost to Apple.
I think had Samsung gotten to its position by actually doing their own research and development instead of hijacking Apple's IP, things would be different. HTC is a perfect example. I actually wish HTC did better, but I think they were a victim of Samsung's predatory practices. The other players would still have come out with their own phablets anyways methink.
On one hand, I credit Xiaomi for stealing Samsung's thunder and frankly, hitting them where it hurts. On the other hand, Xiaomi is even more of a shameless rip-off artist when it comes to an iPhone knockoff but them being a Chinese-company, they have the China government covering for them. Can they even attempt to sell their crap in the US or anywhere else without Apple throwing lawyers down their throat?
Either way, I'm glad Samsung is seeing how karma is.
Samsung have done a lot to piss off Android fans - their custom UI, TouchWiz, is a resource-hogging joke. Not only do Samsung Android phones come with bloatware pre-installed, Samsung also pushes additional bloatware to your phone regularly. There's no escape!
I predict the GS6 will be made from brushed steel.
The main problem with Samsung making a production material transition is that is Apple years ago spent millions of dollars on thousands of CNC milling machines to be used on almost their entire product line. They've probably been paid for in full years ago. If Samsung tries to compete using milled cases it will probably have to invest in machinery and go through whatever teething problems Apple took care of long ago. A transition from plastic to steel or aluminum cases will certainly put Samsung in a margin and production speed bind. These things are best planned well in advance and not from some knee-jerk perspective. Samsung is going to be behind the eight-ball for a while just as Apple might have been with the transition to larger displays.
Haha. This exec change for the mobile division is like changing the captain of the Titanic after striking the iceberg.
If you think about it carefully, when the Titanic struck the iceberg and had they changed captains, more lives might have been saved. A new captain might have immediately yelled, "Everyone head for the lifeboats because this ship is going down." Instead, the first captain merely said, "Hey passengers, don't worry about that iceberg brushing the hull because this ship is completely unsinkable. A round of drinks for everyone." Think about that.
Samsung has zero brand loyalty and very little stickiness to keep people coming back. What is the Samsung ecosystem. What do I get with a Samsung phone that I couldn't get with an LG or HTC phone?
Exactly. I wrote an article about this about 3 years ago, comparing Android with Windows...
"Hardware among vendors was effectively identical. The software was identical. And manufacturers well left with little to differentiate a Dell PC from an HP PC from an Acer PC. Change the beige plastic to black plastic? Add some trim? Dell and Gateway tried to make a go of it via the customization route, but faced increased competition from manufacturers who were left with just a single weapon in their toolkit.
What happens when dozens of companies are producing identical products? You end up with a commodity. And how are commodities traded and sold?
On price.
And so manufacturers did the only thing they could do: undercut each other on price, to the point where PC profit margins were things best measured in dimes, not dollars.
I predict the same thing happening to Android.
With no significant differentiation, the majority of Android devices will end up being heavily discounted, or even given away as loss leaders by carriers and others attempting to lock subscribers into subscription plans."
Exactly. I wrote an article about this about 3 years ago, comparing Android with Windows...
<p style="color:rgb(34,34,34);margin-bottom:15px;">"Hardware among vendors was effectively identical. The software was identical. And manufacturers well left with little to differentiate a Dell PC from an HP PC from an Acer PC. Change the beige plastic to black plastic? Add some trim? Dell and Gateway tried to make a go of it via the customization route, but faced increased competition from manufacturers who were left with just a single weapon in their toolkit.</p>
<p style="color:rgb(34,34,34);margin-bottom:15px;">What happens when dozens of companies are producing identical products? You end up with a commodity. And how are commodities traded and sold?</p>
<p style="color:rgb(34,34,34);margin-bottom:15px;">And so manufacturers did the only thing they could do: undercut each other on price, to the point where PC profit margins were things best measured in dimes, not dollars.</p>
<p style="color:rgb(34,34,34);margin-bottom:15px;">I predict the same thing happening to Android.</p>
<p style="color:rgb(34,34,34);margin-bottom:15px;">With no significant differentiation, the majority of Android devices will end up being heavily discounted, or even given away as loss leaders by carriers and others attempting to lock subscribers into subscription plans."</p>
Comments
It's also a shame Samsung still has to use Apple's R&D facility.
Still really astonishing to think that one company can command 86% of the profits in any area. It was mind boggling when it was just two companies but this...there can't be many precedents to this.
Maybe the iPod era, Apple pretty much dominated every sector of that. If you watch the keynotes where they'd intro a new model (Mini, Shuffle, etc) Jobs would show a pie chart of market share, say which section the new model was targeted at, and then Apple would begin dominating that sector.
Refurbished is the way to go for us. For instance, we picked up a refurbished Polk Audio sound bar, from eBay I believe, for less than half of the regular online price. Also, it wasn't one of the newest versions, so it was like one-third the price. There are great deals out there all of the time. Just have to go fishing.
The speakers I bought were the 2013 models, which sounded the same as the '14 models but didn't have removable grilles (I prefer the '13 look anyway). Picked them up new in box for $75 shipped on eBay (retail is about 130-140). Paired them with a used TEAC CD player/receiver for another $50 and ended up with a system that sounds much more expensive than it really is. Most of the time I just play CD's on it, but it's also hooked into my TV and I use my G4 Cube as a music server(TV has a convenient VGA port), so it outputs to my system as well. One of the best buys I ever made.
I predict the GS6 will be made from brushed steel.
Agreed. It is just such a shame Apple still have to use their production facilities.
Whoa there DC! Samsung is key to Apple's success. And TC intended it this way.
Two of Apple's most important strategic resources is its fab contracts and relationships with Samsung and TSMC. These are central to Apple's annual "tick tock" advances in SoC and AP chip designs.
This is TC's genius. The supply chain. In chips, he now is coordinating advances in 2 and soon 3 or 4 major fabs developing for and supplying Apple's increasingly profitable innovation engine. He's figured out how to incentivize supply partners to invent and innovate at Apple scale, speed, and brilliance.
Bravo for Tim and his brilliant diplomacy in creating a win/win for Apple/Samsung chips and parts and also, simultaneously dominating Samsung in the premium device market.
I got a Samsung sound bar when I got my LED Samsung TV and talk about a lemon design. It has a slight, but audible, hiss sound. Got it replaced. Same thing. Simply a bad design.
The TV is good though.
I got a Samsung sound bar when I got my LED Samsung TV and talk about a lemon design. It has a slight, but audible, hiss sound. Got it replaced. Same thing. Simply a bad design.
The TV is good though.
How's the sound from the TV?
My parents recently bought a nice LED Samsun TV, they spent a little much because they got conned into the SMART label, but it's a decent TV overall given the bloat.
HOWEVER, the sound from it is god awful. Similar to what you experienced with the SS Soundbar. They ended up purchasing a sound bar (from another maker) just because it wasn't even do-able.
Whoa there DC! Samsung is key to Apple's success. And TC intended it this way.
Two of Apple's most important strategic resources is its fab contracts and relationships with Samsung and TSMC. These are central to Apple's annual "tick tock" advances in SoC and AP chip designs.
This is TC's genius. The supply chain. In chips, he now is coordinating advances in 2 and soon 3 or 4 major fabs developing for and supplying Apple's increasingly profitable innovation engine. He's figured out how to incentivize supply partners to invent and innovate at Apple scale, speed, and brilliance.
Bravo for Tim and his brilliant diplomacy in creating a win/win for Apple/Samsung chips and parts and also, simultaneously dominating Samsung in the premium device market.
... in a slightly different way as well.
The market research that Samsung does for Apple. There would be no iPhone 6+ (or even iPhone 5), or iPad mini if there hadn't been Samsung and others putting out 100's of marketing tester kits in the phone, laptop and an tablet areas. The occasional local maxima give Apple guidance on the movement of the market.
Apple can lower the risk by just monitoring all the different flavors and models and features. I really don't think Apple would have pushed a 5.5 inch if the 5-6" phablets hadn't gained some semblance of market share. Apple needs this 'competitive research' to define and refine it's product line directions, at no cost to Apple.
Not for long my friend... Not for long!
And that is 100% of the danger of competing on cost.
If this were an article about Apple the ‘death spiral clock' would have been started by now. Only Apple can be perpetually doomed.
Actually, Apple is only one quarter away from collapsing. If Apple sells about 70 million iPhones this quarter and then drops slightly below 50 million iPhones in the next quarter, that's an unhealthy sales drop and Apple will be headed on a downward trend toward zero sales. It will be claimed that everyone who ever wanted an iPhone already has one and Apple's iPhone market will have a reached a total saturation point. That, added to increased competition from China's Xiaomi and Huawei, pretty much puts Apple out of the smartphone business. Apple just got lucky this year and somehow deceived consumers into buying iPhones they didn't really need. Only Apple is considered building their business on a road to inevitable failure. That much has been decreed.
/s
... in a slightly different way as well.
The market research that Samsung does for Apple. There would be no iPhone 6+ (or even iPhone 5), or iPad mini if there hadn't been Samsung and others putting out 100's of marketing tester kits in the phone, laptop and an tablet areas. The occasional local maxima give Apple guidance on the movement of the market.
Apple can lower the risk by just monitoring all the different flavors and models and features. I really don't think Apple would have pushed a 5.5 inch if the 5-6" phablets hadn't gained some semblance of market share. Apple needs this 'competitive research' to define and refine it's product line directions, at no cost to Apple.
I think had Samsung gotten to its position by actually doing their own research and development instead of hijacking Apple's IP, things would be different. HTC is a perfect example. I actually wish HTC did better, but I think they were a victim of Samsung's predatory practices. The other players would still have come out with their own phablets anyways methink.
On one hand, I credit Xiaomi for stealing Samsung's thunder and frankly, hitting them where it hurts. On the other hand, Xiaomi is even more of a shameless rip-off artist when it comes to an iPhone knockoff but them being a Chinese-company, they have the China government covering for them. Can they even attempt to sell their crap in the US or anywhere else without Apple throwing lawyers down their throat?
Either way, I'm glad Samsung is seeing how karma is.
Samsung have done a lot to piss off Android fans - their custom UI, TouchWiz, is a resource-hogging joke. Not only do Samsung Android phones come with bloatware pre-installed, Samsung also pushes additional bloatware to your phone regularly. There's no escape!
I predict the GS6 will be made from brushed steel.
The main problem with Samsung making a production material transition is that is Apple years ago spent millions of dollars on thousands of CNC milling machines to be used on almost their entire product line. They've probably been paid for in full years ago. If Samsung tries to compete using milled cases it will probably have to invest in machinery and go through whatever teething problems Apple took care of long ago. A transition from plastic to steel or aluminum cases will certainly put Samsung in a margin and production speed bind. These things are best planned well in advance and not from some knee-jerk perspective. Samsung is going to be behind the eight-ball for a while just as Apple might have been with the transition to larger displays.
Haha. This exec change for the mobile division is like changing the captain of the Titanic after striking the iceberg.
If you think about it carefully, when the Titanic struck the iceberg and had they changed captains, more lives might have been saved. A new captain might have immediately yelled, "Everyone head for the lifeboats because this ship is going down." Instead, the first captain merely said, "Hey passengers, don't worry about that iceberg brushing the hull because this ship is completely unsinkable. A round of drinks for everyone." Think about that.
Samsung has zero brand loyalty and very little stickiness to keep people coming back. What is the Samsung ecosystem. What do I get with a Samsung phone that I couldn't get with an LG or HTC phone?
Exactly. I wrote an article about this about 3 years ago, comparing Android with Windows...
"Hardware among vendors was effectively identical. The software was identical. And manufacturers well left with little to differentiate a Dell PC from an HP PC from an Acer PC. Change the beige plastic to black plastic? Add some trim? Dell and Gateway tried to make a go of it via the customization route, but faced increased competition from manufacturers who were left with just a single weapon in their toolkit.
What happens when dozens of companies are producing identical products? You end up with a commodity. And how are commodities traded and sold?
On price.
And so manufacturers did the only thing they could do: undercut each other on price, to the point where PC profit margins were things best measured in dimes, not dollars.
I predict the same thing happening to Android.
With no significant differentiation, the majority of Android devices will end up being heavily discounted, or even given away as loss leaders by carriers and others attempting to lock subscribers into subscription plans."
So what's the solution? Writing about the problem is easy, and helps no one.