k2kw said: I think he still has a little bitterness to iOS and the iPhone because it killed WebOS.
Palm killed webOS for the smartphone. They could've had Android's marketshare had they been smarter and not jump the gun with their "First!1!" mentality.
Here's some more "oxymorons" I've noticed from the iKnockoff crowd:
"Apple is too expensive" But criticizes Apple for not adding more to the XR. Like how it needs a 1080p screen(for some reason), OLED etc. which would drive the price much higher.
Ostrich and sand??? With the benefit of hindsight, it is now easy to figure out that Apple got it wrong with respect to features and pricing of Xr. Xr is supposed to be the successor to iPhone 8 plus, but it was a side grade (design and SoC upgraded, display and camera downgraded), not a proper upgrade. It still would have been fine if Apple had priced it accordingly. But that didn't happen, hence Apple trying hard with promotional offers to increase sales. And revenue shortage purely due to lack of iphone sales. To even deny these basic facts is to keep the head firmly in the sand like an ostrich.
While I do think that the display was down graded(the display on th 8plus was 401 ppi while the XR display is 326 ppi) and the intel modem is a cheaper alternative to the Qualcomm modems, the Camera in the XR is a significant upgrade with a sensor which is 30% bigger than last years. It’s considered better than the camera in last years IphoneX . I was listening to a John Gruber Talk Show podcast from last year with Nilay Patel and they raved about how much better it was for photos and the Best for Video. I love the colors and If it had the 401 ppi screen would have upgraded to it. Hopefully they will add more colors to the XS and XSMax successors.
He also forgot to mention it has an X design.
You just can't win with these guys.
He did say the design was upgraded. That includes the redesign for the FaceID Array/notch plus the colors. I personally am very impressed by the colors. Hope they keep them because long term I think it will help bring in switchers from Android.
oh ok. but my display comment still stands. it's a beautiful iPhone. Wish they'd bring back jet black "piano black".
That’s interesting @Ericthehalfbee. So the active iOS devices in the App Store definition encompass iPhones, iPads, and Macs via Mac store? I’ve never visited App Store for my iMac, but likely it’s accounted for by iTunes. Just a slight adjustment to your definition. I had been wondering how to define AppleWatch, but now it like AirPod is uncounted, a subsidiary. This makes sense for now, until those devices gain autonomy or at least own significant apps. We can surmise, if Apple can accurately measure, that total unique users are less than 1B. I’m sure that will be worth a remark in quarterly call.
Btw, Samsung just announced its bringing iTunes and AirPlay to its smart TVs. This along with Amazon devices now supporting Apple Music I think clearly indicates both Apple TV and HomePod are overpriced and not selling as well as Apple had hoped. I suspect we’ll see a cheap Apple TV dongle this spring.
Apple is transitioning from a premium product company to a services everywhere company. I guess it’s what they have to do but it’s not terribly exciting is it?
https://news.samsung.com/us/samsung-smart-tvs-launch-itunes-movies-tv-shows-support-airplay-2-spring-2019/
Btw, Samsung just announced its bringing iTunes and AirPlay to its smart TVs. This along with Amazon devices now supporting Apple Music I think clearly indicates both Apple TV and HomePod are overpriced and not selling as well as Apple had hoped. I suspect we’ll see a cheap Apple TV dongle this spring.
Apple is transitioning from a premium product company to a services everywhere company. I guess it’s what they have to do but it’s not terribly exciting is it?
https://news.samsung.com/us/samsung-smart-tvs-launch-itunes-movies-tv-shows-support-airplay-2-spring-2019/
WTF?
How would iTunes on samsung TVs help Apple? Music I understand.
Also we don't know if HomePod is failing based off your theory.
The young guys who do videos/youtube for AppleInsider are very good. I wish Victor would have them on the podcast, but I think Nilay Patel did the best Review of the iPhoneX that I have watched. I find Nilay's comments fair and balanced concerning Apple even if a lot of readers here don't. Dieter Bohn on the other hand may do good work but definitely has a very unbiased balance towards Android. I think he still has a little bitterness to iOS and the iPhone because it killed WebOS.
Appeinsider reviews are excellent straightforward detailed and thorough.
I find The Verge an insufferable exercise in vanity... complainy, egotistical nonsense.
Cash for clicks aka fake news as about as desperate as it gets.
The young guys who do videos/youtube for AppleInsider are very good. I wish Victor would have them on the podcast, but I think Nilay Patel did the best Review of the iPhoneX that I have watched. I find Nilay's comments fair and balanced concerning Apple even if a lot of readers here don't. Dieter Bohn on the other hand may do good work but definitely has a very unbiased balance towards Android. I think he still has a little bitterness to iOS and the iPhone because it killed WebOS.
I find The Verge an insufferable exercise in vanity... complainy, egotistical nonsense.
Cash for clicks aka fake news as about as desperate as it gets.
"They weren’t first to market, but well over a year after their release, Apple’s AirPods remain the best truly wireless earbuds you can get because of their seamless user experience, long battery life, good sound, and best-of-the-bunch carrying case. Their design has been roundly mocked, but the AirPods’ white stems are now ubiquitous and instantly recognizable in cities around the world. The AirPods are one of the company’s best first-generation products of all time, and their $159 price remains aggressive and appealing when lined up against the competition.
When it comes to their sound, I like the way Vlad put it best: “There’s enough of everything — bass and treble extension, soundstage, clarity, and detail — in Apple’s tuning to render a convincing reproduction of most genres of music.” They might look similar, but the AirPods are a good magnitude superior to the pack-in earbuds that accompanied your iPhone in its box."
Fake and desperate, just cash for clicks? Well OK, if you say so....
“It wasn't pundits who thought up the potential of iPhone, or the App Store, or iPads, or Machine Learning, or Augmented Reality, or any of the wildly innovative, technological underpinning features in silicon firmware, in software, in mass production assembly and in every other discipline that non-technical people simply take for granted. It was individuals at Apple who came up with this stuff while being ceaselessly derided for being "devoid of innovation," as if that phrase is inherently clever to scribble out into words or call in to CNBC on a "why Apple is doomed" expert interview.”
No, as I recall the App Store was the result of user requests for native programs which Steve Jobs didn’t envision for his web app based iPhone and the need to control the platform. iPad and iPhone sans the name were pictured in SF and a clear follow up of the Palm pda’s much earlier. Machine Learning (even similar to the current implementations) was common stuff at the University’s (studied that in 1985) and Augmented reality is from not much later. Apple deserves credit for getting the actual implementation right and launching it to the mainstream, not for the ideas in itself.
The young guys who do videos/youtube for AppleInsider are very good. I wish Victor would have them on the podcast, but I think Nilay Patel did the best Review of the iPhoneX that I have watched. I find Nilay's comments fair and balanced concerning Apple even if a lot of readers here don't. Dieter Bohn on the other hand may do good work but definitely has a very unbiased balance towards Android. I think he still has a little bitterness to iOS and the iPhone because it killed WebOS.
I find The Verge an insufferable exercise in vanity... complainy, egotistical nonsense.
Cash for clicks aka fake news as about as desperate as it gets.
"They weren’t first to market, but well over a year after their release, Apple’s AirPods remain the best truly wireless earbuds you can get because of their seamless user experience, long battery life, good sound, and best-of-the-bunch carrying case. Their design has been roundly mocked, but the AirPods’ white stems are now ubiquitous and instantly recognizable in cities around the world. The AirPods are one of the company’s best first-generation products of all time, and their $159 price remains aggressive and appealing when lined up against the competition.
When it comes to their sound, I like the way Vlad put it best: “There’s enough of everything — bass and treble extension, soundstage, clarity, and detail — in Apple’s tuning to render a convincing reproduction of most genres of music.” They might look similar, but the AirPods are a good magnitude superior to the pack-in earbuds that accompanied your iPhone in its box."
Fake and desperate, just cash for clicks? Well OK, if you say so....
There are plenty of articles on the verge that praise Apple products. That has nothing to do with my point.
Fake and desperate with regards to the state of journalism as a whole, not the verge. They have bigger problems than clickbait.
It looks like the number of active devices is now 1.4B.
More interesting would be active users.
Is this truly active devices or sold devices as I have half a dozen in active old devices like iPodTouch, iPhone 4S, iPhone5S, SE, and a couple iPads?
That's not to imply their is only 200 Million Active users. I'm sure there are at least 500 Million active users but maybe less than 1 Billion.
In general active users and active devices does mean devices being still used. I’m not sure on Apple’s criteria but on a website it’s generally one login per month for an active user. If you keep the iPhone in a drawer it isn’t counted. Active users are of course fewer than active devices for the reasons you mentioned. I doubt , however, if on average iPhone users have another active device - ie that the average number of active devices per user is 2 or more. It might be for people on this site. So 1.4B devices is I suspect 700-1B users.
Apples criteria is when a device visits The App Store. There's a very specific reason for this and it has to do with Google.
Google USED to count a device that was turned on and "checked in to their servers" which is a fancy way of saying login. Unfortunately this tracked ALL Android devices including the really cheap/old devices running older versions of Android. This had the effect of showing a disproportionate number of users on older devices and made their Android Version pie chart look really bad (yes, even worse than now).
So Google changed their method to only show visits to the Google Play Store. Their reasoning (which does make sense) was that developers would be more interested in knowing the number of devices where people are actively looking at getting Apps (the more valuable customers). But this had an added side benefit. Literally overnight Android distribution numbers changed and the number of people using older versions dropped while newer versions went up. Did a large number of users stop using their old device and upgrade to new ones? Nope. The distribution of users never changed, just how Google counted them.
Apple never used to report users vs iOS version until much later than Google. And when they did they used the SAME method as Google - visits to The App Store.
Interesting. That’s an underestimate of actual users though, but as you say it doesn’t matter all that much.
Now that’s rich. You think predicting Apples future is as simple as “hiring a writer”?
The thing that was different this time, as opposed to all the other times the naysayers were crying wolf, was that Apple's behaviour itself changed.
Firstly, there were push notifications flogging new phones, then the upgraded trade in program, and the change in language on its web presence to promote actual features of the phone rather than some byline like, "All the power. All the time".
If this wasn't enough to pique interest.... but then those like DED simply dismissed this change in behaviour in favour of the rolling Apple juggernaut narrative, rather than trying to understand why this was happening.
There is no "Apple juggernaut narrative." It's an observable fact that Apple has been making virtually all of the profits in the industries it participates in. Nobody is baselessly making up a story that isn't true about Apple's success. In suggesting that this is the case, you're simply inventing a lie. That's bad for discourse and makes the world a stupider place. So shame on you.
There is also no mystery why Apple is working overtime to try to push upgrades: it's a commercial business engaged in a profit-making exercise in a shrinking market--smartphones have been retracting. Of course Apple is pursuing new efforts to sell phones. That's what it does. It's not a conspiracy or evidence that the company is right around the corner from doom. That's your narrative. Every story suggesting that Apple just now invented promotion, advertising and incentives because it was on the brink of going out of business is the lie you're looking for. That's the false narrative presented without supporting facts.
Who’s getting hysterical now? That Apple commands all the profits is not something I’ve disputed. I’ve not suggested Apple is doomed. That is you just shovelling words into my mouth. That is not my narrative. So just stop. It is beneath you.
Just making the observation that something IS different this time. Apple’s behaviour has changed. Has it not? Or is it just routine marketing efforts as you seem to put it?
Apple haven’t changed those product bylines (If they’re called that) for as long as I care to remember. They’ve not sent push notification to upgrade devices as far as I know. They haven’t provided more generous trade-in options as best I know. That they have surely should make you ask the question, why?
Was it planned, or did was it because they could see guidance would be missed?
That last question is the one I’m interested in.
Frankly the idea of promoting an upgrade through notification I find to be crass. I already get promotional email from Apple.
I for one am not jumping around with glee. Apple have traditionally been spot on or conservative with guidance, but to admit a miss of in the region of 7-10% is noticed and questions are bound to be asked.
Btw, Samsung just announced its bringing iTunes and AirPlay to its smart TVs. This along with Amazon devices now supporting Apple Music I think clearly indicates both Apple TV and HomePod are overpriced and not selling as well as Apple had hoped. I suspect we’ll see a cheap Apple TV dongle this spring.
Apple is transitioning from a premium product company to a services everywhere company. I guess it’s what they have to do but it’s not terribly exciting is it?
https://news.samsung.com/us/samsung-smart-tvs-launch-itunes-movies-tv-shows-support-airplay-2-spring-2019/
WTF?
How would iTunes on samsung TVs help Apple? Music I understand.
Also we don't know if HomePod is failing based off your theory.
I feel safe in saying that if the HomePods were a success by November Tim Cook really would have crowed about that in either the Q3 or Q4 earnings call or onstage when they premiered the iPhone. Since I've seen a lot of sales during the holidays with HomePods down to $250 there is a very good chance that Apple sold a $Billion or two of them during the 4th Quarter but it probably would have very low profit margins which may be ok if its made up with Apple Music subscriptions. We will only know if its considered a success if Apple brings out a Generation 2 product. If the Gen2 is cheaper then Apple figured out that they over priced the HP. Of course it may just be ignored like with the AirPort Extreme.
I'm looking forward to DED doing an editorial that HomePod is a great success with quotes from all the people that said it was horrible. It would be a follow up to this from 2 years ago:
The author forgot to note that, if other products and services are skyrocketing, and phone prices are up, the real shrink in the iPhone business is much higher than 5-9%. Maybe 30%?
iPhone ASP won’t have seen the same huge uptick this year versus the same quarter last year. Last year, with the X on sale in the holiday quarter, ASPs shot up about $100, to $794, if I recall correctly. Doubtful ASPs this year are $894, but if so then more power to Apple. Plus, regardless of how much ASP has climbed, even from around $800 that leaves Apple a very good arrow in its quiver to still make great returns by discounting or offering lower MSRPs should they feel the need. Evidence Apple is okay is that long-term owners of shares who have merely held their positions steady today own a significantly greater share of Apple’s future earnings due to the buybacks. And the effects of same are already showing, with this quarter’s earnings per share being the highest ever, even after the revenue drop versus last year’s record holiday quarter.
Philip Elmer-DeWitt today on 4 things he learned from Apple's guidance update:
• Don't trust Apple's guidance. Sure, Steve Jobs used to sandbag investors, guiding low, coming in high. I thought I could take Tim Cook's numbers (or his silence) to the bank. Now I know better.
• Don't be too quick to call FUD. Not all negative reports are created equal. Sometimes there's good reason to have fear, uncertainty and doubt.
• Case in point: Lumentum's revised guidance. When Lumentum's announced in November that a major supplier (almost certainly Apple) had sharply reduced orders for 3D imaging components, I posted several items about analystsreducingestimates. "Could be a bad sign," I wrote. But then I gave more than equal weight to the possibility that Apple had simply switched suppliers.
• Stick to the facts; don't sugar-coat. Apple investors may prefer reading good news about the company, but I'm not doing anyone any favors by putting my thumb on the scale.
You forgot to mention, ‘don’t trust any company’s ability to judge the affects of extraordinary times created by an impetuous and irrational agent in a very high position he wouldn’t occupy were there any sanity and logic applied on the part of the electorate.’
It looks like the number of active devices is now 1.4B.
More interesting would be active users.
Is this truly active devices or sold devices as I have half a dozen in active old devices like iPodTouch, iPhone 4S, iPhone5S, SE, and a couple iPads?
That's not to imply their is only 200 Million Active users. I'm sure there are at least 500 Million active users but maybe less than 1 Billion.
Years ago there were 650 million active users. So yeah, it’s for sure closer to 1 billion than 500 million today.
No, as I recall the App Store was the result of user requests for native programs which Steve Jobs didn’t envision for his web app based iPhone and the need to control the platform.
Your memory is crap/your username is pretty inaccurate.
It really is true that the media on the whole gives the Android phone makers a pass. Rubenstein's Essential Phone is dead. That disappeared without any editorials. What was that Google phone that came in different pieces you could click together? That seems to be gone. When Samsung phones were bursting into flames and the airports all had signs posted that you couldn't take them on board a plane the media gave Samsung kudos for responding quickly. Apple would have been pilloried.
It really is true that the media on the whole gives the Android phone makers a pass. Rubenstein's Essential Phone is dead. That disappeared without any editorials. What was that Google phone that came in different pieces you could click together? That seems to be gone. When Samsung phones were bursting into flames and the airports all had signs posted that you couldn't take them on board a plane the media gave Samsung kudos for responding quickly. Apple would have been pilloried.
Essential and Google are not major hardware players. The have less importance in hardware terms.
Samsung was pounded by the media but eventually issued a full recall and largely got credit for it. Ir didn't get an easy ride by any stretch of the imagination.
Comments
How would iTunes on samsung TVs help Apple? Music I understand.
Also we don't know if HomePod is failing based off your theory.
I find The Verge an insufferable exercise in vanity... complainy, egotistical nonsense.
Cash for clicks aka fake news as about as desperate as it gets.
"They weren’t first to market, but well over a year after their release, Apple’s AirPods remain the best truly wireless earbuds you can get because of their seamless user experience, long battery life, good sound, and best-of-the-bunch carrying case. Their design has been roundly mocked, but the AirPods’ white stems are now ubiquitous and instantly recognizable in cities around the world. The AirPods are one of the company’s best first-generation products of all time, and their $159 price remains aggressive and appealing when lined up against the competition.
When it comes to their sound, I like the way Vlad put it best: “There’s enough of everything — bass and treble extension, soundstage, clarity, and detail — in Apple’s tuning to render a convincing reproduction of most genres of music.” They might look similar, but the AirPods are a good magnitude superior to the pack-in earbuds that accompanied your iPhone in its box."
Fake and desperate, just cash for clicks? Well OK, if you say so....
No, as I recall the App Store was the result of user requests for native programs which Steve Jobs didn’t envision for his web app based iPhone and the need to control the platform.
iPad and iPhone sans the name were pictured in SF and a clear follow up of the Palm pda’s much earlier.
Machine Learning (even similar to the current implementations) was common stuff at the University’s (studied that in 1985) and Augmented reality is from not much later.
Apple deserves credit for getting the actual implementation right and launching it to the mainstream, not for the ideas in itself.
Fake and desperate with regards to the state of journalism as a whole, not the verge. They have bigger problems than clickbait.
Just making the observation that something IS different this time. Apple’s behaviour has changed. Has it not? Or is it just routine marketing efforts as you seem to put it?
Apple haven’t changed those product bylines (If they’re called that) for as long as I care to remember. They’ve not sent push notification to upgrade devices as far as I know. They haven’t provided more generous trade-in options as best I know. That they have surely should make you ask the question, why?
Was it planned, or did was it because they could see guidance would be missed?
That last question is the one I’m interested in.
Frankly the idea of promoting an upgrade through notification I find to be crass. I already get promotional email from Apple.
I for one am not jumping around with glee. Apple have traditionally been spot on or conservative with guidance, but to admit a miss of in the region of 7-10% is noticed and questions are bound to be asked.
I'm looking forward to DED doing an editorial that HomePod is a great success with quotes from all the people that said it was horrible. It would be a follow up to this from 2 years ago:
https://appleinsider.com/articles/17/01/07/is-apple-getting-siri-ous-in-the-face-of-amazons-alexa-echo
But other than that...
Your memory is crap/your username is pretty inaccurate.
Samsung was pounded by the media but eventually issued a full recall and largely got credit for it. Ir didn't get an easy ride by any stretch of the imagination.