I don’t claim to be an expert or to have a crystal ball, but I hardly doubt the collaborative minds at Apple have not at least once thought ahead to the day when the premium cellphone market would reach a saturation point and growth would slow, if not decline.
Apple could ride out just about any worst worst case scenario if Ronald McDonald was the CEO.
An excellent editorial. Thank you, Daniel Eran Dilger. And truly, no one who has proclaimed doom upon Apple has ever been right. With that said, I do take issue with the lone premise that "Apple has gone through this before and emerged unscathed" (which is my own interpretation and summary of the editorial).
The editorial starts off talking about the G4 Cube (hint, hint -- I obviously own one, and it still works fine, and I still love it) being expensive and more form than function. And yet the article misses the fact that the MacBook Pro, while always having been expensive, put more emphasis on form than function starting in late 2016. The MacBook reeks of that, and now the MacBook AIR. So when the pro-Apple media time and time again admits the G4 Cube was "a failure due to price and form over function," that same pro-Apple media needs to admit something similar when it comes to Apple's design and pricing decisions since late 2016, at least when it comes to the notebook line, which is a very important product line among all the Macs Apple sells.
Even AppleInsider recently admitted that a USB-C-only trek to CES was hardship due to the ubiquity of USB-A, and consider well how long USB-C has been on the market. It doesn't matter how superior a standard is to an old standard if people, regardless of reason, cling to the old standard. Apple is therefore now somewhat out of touch with the needs of The Rest of Us when it comes to making machines that bridge the needs of today with the tech of tomorrow.
Putting just one USB-A port on the 15" MBP (where there's space aplenty to do that) would have eliminated a mountain of complaints. Had there been 3 USB-C ports and 1 USB-A, the USB-C worshippers surely wouldn't have complained and neither would legacy USB-A product users. All would have been satisfied with that kind of decision, but three are other considerations too. Having a good keyboard (unlike the butterfly we have now) is still possible in a thin and light enclosure, as Windows ultrabooks have shown. Stripping away useful features like the SD card slot, extension power cord in box, LED on charging cable, MagSafe, and adding useless features like the TouchBar, and then eliminating fun features like the glowing Apple logo are all obnoxious changes to satisfy a Johnny Ive who has run dry of insanely great ideas, rather than improvements that benefit the Mac-loving masses. These are facts that we should not try to defend only because we love Apple, but instead admit them as failures, just as Steve Jobs did when Apple screwed up under his watch. "The launch of MobileMe was not our finest hour," Steve said. In like manner, the emphasis of form over function in Apple notebooks is also not indicative of Apple's finest.
In the end, I want Apple to succeed. Believe me, as an AAPL shareholder since 1999, I really, really want them to succeed. But I also want to continue being enthralled by and attracted to Macs. It saddens me to admit that I have zero attraction to Apple notebooks today. Even if they were 50% off, I wouldn't buy them because the mid-2015 15" MBP is a Mac that satisfies my needs today and can run the latest MacOS. It's just that at some future point I will need to upgrade, and I shudder to think how stripped-down those future machines will be in light of how form takes so much more precedence than function in today's Apple notebooks. Indeed, the only great computer that Apple makes is the iMac (no SD card slot on the 2018 Mini keeps it from greatness). And while that's a perfect choice for a Mac desktop machine, there is need for great features in an Apple-branded notebook too.
Look, we Mac users who have been with Apple since 1984 know full well about Apple being pricey relative to silly DOS and Windows machines. But the question is, does Apple make a Mac that satisfies the needs of most Mac users today? And no, that question doesn't mean "satisfy me when I buy add-on dongles?" but rather "satisfy me with features out of the box, as is?" For me, and for many other Mac lovers, that answer is sadly, No. We aren't satisfied. And it's not because we are chronic complainers. Indeed, Apple did satisfy our needs in the past. And for that reason, many among us cannot help but feel Apple's pricing is not inline with the features we get versus the features we need and expect. Give us the features we need and crave and we will love you in spite of the price. We the consumer keep Apple alive and well, not visa versa.
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.
You mention a number of examples of "foundations of what's next." But the problem is, none of them truly measure up, yet.
iPod/Watch/Wearables/Other HW: $11B on revenues of $108B in 2011 was 10%; $17.4B as a % of 2018 revenues is 6.5%. The size of needed wins grows at least at the same same rate as the size of the company.
AppleTV: Apple has lost that race. It never got beyond a self-described hobby.
HomePod: Too tiny to even merit mention. Changes of it contributing significantly to anything anytime soon are remote.
Services: This is a huge bright spot, and what will matter for this is the installed base of iOS devices. But Homekit/CarPlay are, so far, also-rans (there seems to be an issue of Apple not playing well with home appliance and auto manufacturers); competition for ApplePay is growing rapidly (esp. with contactless credit card payments), and moreover, Apple has done a lousy job of marketing it; iTunes is a bloated mess, and needs re-imagining/re-tooling from the ground up; iCloud is not terrible, but other cloud services and offerings such as Dropbox have eaten its lunch; AppleMusic is a solid addition, but I am dubious of its level of success outside the US; Healthkit is a massive opportunity in a multi-trillion dollar health industry, but it is still work in progress.
I would not be surprised if the next year or two continued to be rocky for AAPL. That said, I am quite happy to hold.
Apple is so lucky that Alexa is around. Voice control of appliances aren't being dominated by Google. Hopefully this gives Apple a little time to catch up. Of course Alexa can't dominate till they come out with either a premier product like a phone, tablet, computer,(like Apple) or Car. Till then they are just on the Periphery of people's digital life. And Apple has a few years to catch Siri Up.
The modern history of Apple has weathered two previous recessions: one in the early 2000s following the Dotcom Bust, and then the Great Recession of the late 2000s that hit after the 2007 Financial Crisis. Note that both of these happened to coincide with the emergence of major new products that fundamentally changed Apple's core: first iPod and then iPhone.
It's a safe bet they are just wrong again.
All that and DED doesn't predict what is the next product that allows Apple to weather and even grow in the next recession. Is it the watch? It is definitely growing. Or is it the Car? or the next TV service? Is it the HomePod? Apple must have sold a ton because they cut the Price to $250 everywhere during Christmas. And how much will it bring in to fuel years of growth of the stock like the iphone did?
(I think there needs to be a new SIRI. SIRI is the product/services that just drags down every other Apple product. I totally passed on the HomePod even when I could have picked up 4 of them this Christmas because of Siri).
Putting just one USB-A port on the 15" MBP (where there's space aplenty to do that) would have eliminated a mountain of complaints. Had there been 3 USB-C ports and 1 USB-A, the USB-C worshippers surely wouldn't have complained and neither would legacy USB-A product users. All would have been satisfied with that kind of decision, but three are other considerations too. Having a good keyboard (unlike the butterfly we have now) is still possible in a thin and light enclosure, as Windows ultrabooks have shown. Stripping away useful features like the SD card slot, extension power cord in box, LED on charging cable, MagSafe, and adding useless features like the TouchBar, and then eliminating fun features like the glowing Apple logo are all obnoxious changes to satisfy a Johnny Ive who has run dry of insanely great ideas, rather than improvements that benefit the Mac-loving masses. These are facts that we should not try to defend only because we love Apple, but instead admit them as failures, just as Steve Jobs did when Apple screwed up under his watch. "The launch of MobileMe was not our finest hour," Steve said. In like manner, the emphasis of form over function in Apple notebooks is also not indicative of Apple's finest.
Alas few use "Insanely Great" to describe Apple's current computers. We're just lucky when Apple decides to refresh one. Mac sales may hold their own but I believe that they would be at least 50% higher if Apple was making better products and keeping them up to date.
(current MBP - "Innovation my Ass" is all I will say). And yes its ridiculous that it took Apple over 2 years to get the damn butterfly keyboard to this point (not that I want it). QA evidently is something that is missing at Apple.
I believe apple strategy is two prong: 1). To expand services beyond IOS 2). Retain and expand hardware by offering incentive (free service of sort) to existing customers until they offer 5G devices.
I believe apple strategy is two prong: 1). To expand services beyond IOS 2). Retain and expand hardware by offer incentive (free service of sort) to existing customers until they offer 5G devices.
G4 cube, NeXTcube was its predecessor and a lot more interesting using a MO (magneto optical) drive for storage. Helas this system had its flaws, when using it it sounded like a jackhammer and you had to make sure it didn’t “bounce from the table” when the MO drive was pushed to its limits. Its 56001 DSP and cusom Apple (nee NeXT) made communication crossbar was really advanced but again, helas, not realy usesfull. I once made a matrix calculation test and had to compute 1024x1024 and larger matrices to get an advantage using its DSP, otherwise the 68040 was better. I concluded that the communication bandwidth was its bottleneck. Later versions of NeXTStep made this clear by removing DSP support, even Ensemble (a very good looking synthesiser was demoted to the 68040, but could be restored to its former DSP glory...). Still, if I remember correctly, running Mathematica on NeXTStep’s superior display postscript system looked much better than on a current Mac ...
An excellent editorial. Thank you, Daniel Eran Dilger. And truly, no one who has proclaimed doom upon Apple has ever been right. With that said, I do take issue with the lone premise that "Apple has gone through this before and emerged unscathed" (which is my own interpretation and summary of the editorial).
The editorial starts off talking about the G4 Cube (hint, hint -- I obviously own one, and it still works fine, and I still love it) being expensive and more form than function. And yet the article misses the fact that the MacBook Pro, while always having been expensive, put more emphasis on form than function starting in late 2016. The MacBook reeks of that, and now the MacBook AIR. So when the pro-Apple media time and time again admits the G4 Cube was "a failure due to price and form over function," that same pro-Apple media needs to admit something similar when it comes to Apple's design and pricing decisions since late 2016, at least when it comes to the notebook line, which is a very important product line among all the Macs Apple sells.
Even AppleInsider recently admitted that a USB-C-only trek to CES was hardship due to the ubiquity of USB-A, and consider well how long USB-C has been on the market. It doesn't matter how superior a standard is to an old standard if people, regardless of reason, cling to the old standard. Apple is therefore now somewhat out of touch with the needs of The Rest of Us when it comes to making machines that bridge the needs of today with the tech of tomorrow.
Putting just one USB-A port on the 15" MBP (where there's space aplenty to do that) would have eliminated a mountain of complaints. Had there been 3 USB-C ports and 1 USB-A, the USB-C worshippers surely wouldn't have complained and neither would legacy USB-A product users. All would have been satisfied with that kind of decision, but three are other considerations too. Having a good keyboard (unlike the butterfly we have now) is still possible in a thin and light enclosure, as Windows ultrabooks have shown. Stripping away useful features like the SD card slot, extension power cord in box, LED on charging cable, MagSafe, and adding useless features like the TouchBar, and then eliminating fun features like the glowing Apple logo are all obnoxious changes to satisfy a Johnny Ive who has run dry of insanely great ideas, rather than improvements that benefit the Mac-loving masses. These are facts that we should not try to defend only because we love Apple, but instead admit them as failures, just as Steve Jobs did when Apple screwed up under his watch. "The launch of MobileMe was not our finest hour," Steve said. In like manner, the emphasis of form over function in Apple notebooks is also not indicative of Apple's finest.
In the end, I want Apple to succeed. Believe me, as an AAPL shareholder since 1999, I really, really want them to succeed. But I also want to continue being enthralled by and attracted to Macs. It saddens me to admit that I have zero attraction to Apple notebooks today. Even if they were 50% off, I wouldn't buy them because the mid-2015 15" MBP is a Mac that satisfies my needs today and can run the latest MacOS. It's just that at some future point I will need to upgrade, and I shudder to think how stripped-down those future machines will be in light of how form takes so much more precedence than function in today's Apple notebooks. Indeed, the only great computer that Apple makes is the iMac (no SD card slot on the 2018 Mini keeps it from greatness). And while that's a perfect choice for a Mac desktop machine, there is need for great features in an Apple-branded notebook too.
Look, we Mac users who have been with Apple since 1984 know full well about Apple being pricey relative to silly DOS and Windows machines. But the question is, does Apple make a Mac that satisfies the needs of most Mac users today? And no, that question doesn't mean "satisfy me when I buy add-on dongles?" but rather "satisfy me with features out of the box, as is?" For me, and for many other Mac lovers, that answer is sadly, No. We aren't satisfied. And it's not because we are chronic complainers. Indeed, Apple did satisfy our needs in the past. And for that reason, many among us cannot help but feel Apple's pricing is not inline with the features we get versus the features we need and expect. Give us the features we need and crave and we will love you in spite of the price. We the consumer keep Apple alive and well, not visa versa.
^^^What a brilliant post.
I finally decided to buckle, and buy a new 15” MBP, but I have to say that it is the least exciting and least anticipated Apple purchase I’ve ever made. The Touchbar is a useless, unnecessary, cutesy piece of sh**. USB-C is an underachiever. And I dread not having MagSafe for the first time in years.
An excellent editorial. Thank you, Daniel Eran Dilger. And truly, no one who has proclaimed doom upon Apple has ever been right. With that said, I do take issue with the lone premise that "Apple has gone through this before and emerged unscathed" (which is my own interpretation and summary of the editorial).
The editorial starts off talking about the G4 Cube (hint, hint -- I obviously own one, and it still works fine, and I still love it) being expensive and more form than function. And yet the article misses the fact that the MacBook Pro, while always having been expensive, put more emphasis on form than function starting in late 2016. The MacBook reeks of that, and now the MacBook AIR. So when the pro-Apple media time and time again admits the G4 Cube was "a failure due to price and form over function," that same pro-Apple media needs to admit something similar when it comes to Apple's design and pricing decisions since late 2016, at least when it comes to the notebook line, which is a very important product line among all the Macs Apple sells.
Even AppleInsider recently admitted that a USB-C-only trek to CES was hardship due to the ubiquity of USB-A, and consider well how long USB-C has been on the market. It doesn't matter how superior a standard is to an old standard if people, regardless of reason, cling to the old standard. Apple is therefore now somewhat out of touch with the needs of The Rest of Us when it comes to making machines that bridge the needs of today with the tech of tomorrow.
Putting just one USB-A port on the 15" MBP (where there's space aplenty to do that) would have eliminated a mountain of complaints. Had there been 3 USB-C ports and 1 USB-A, the USB-C worshippers surely wouldn't have complained and neither would legacy USB-A product users. All would have been satisfied with that kind of decision, but three are other considerations too. Having a good keyboard (unlike the butterfly we have now) is still possible in a thin and light enclosure, as Windows ultrabooks have shown. Stripping away useful features like the SD card slot, extension power cord in box, LED on charging cable, MagSafe, and adding useless features like the TouchBar, and then eliminating fun features like the glowing Apple logo are all obnoxious changes to satisfy a Johnny Ive who has run dry of insanely great ideas, rather than improvements that benefit the Mac-loving masses. These are facts that we should not try to defend only because we love Apple, but instead admit them as failures, just as Steve Jobs did when Apple screwed up under his watch. "The launch of MobileMe was not our finest hour," Steve said. In like manner, the emphasis of form over function in Apple notebooks is also not indicative of Apple's finest.
In the end, I want Apple to succeed. Believe me, as an AAPL shareholder since 1999, I really, really want them to succeed. But I also want to continue being enthralled by and attracted to Macs. It saddens me to admit that I have zero attraction to Apple notebooks today. Even if they were 50% off, I wouldn't buy them because the mid-2015 15" MBP is a Mac that satisfies my needs today and can run the latest MacOS. It's just that at some future point I will need to upgrade, and I shudder to think how stripped-down those future machines will be in light of how form takes so much more precedence than function in today's Apple notebooks. Indeed, the only great computer that Apple makes is the iMac (no SD card slot on the 2018 Mini keeps it from greatness). And while that's a perfect choice for a Mac desktop machine, there is need for great features in an Apple-branded notebook too.
Look, we Mac users who have been with Apple since 1984 know full well about Apple being pricey relative to silly DOS and Windows machines. But the question is, does Apple make a Mac that satisfies the needs of most Mac users today? And no, that question doesn't mean "satisfy me when I buy add-on dongles?" but rather "satisfy me with features out of the box, as is?" For me, and for many other Mac lovers, that answer is sadly, No. We aren't satisfied. And it's not because we are chronic complainers. Indeed, Apple did satisfy our needs in the past. And for that reason, many among us cannot help but feel Apple's pricing is not inline with the features we get versus the features we need and expect. Give us the features we need and crave and we will love you in spite of the price. We the consumer keep Apple alive and well, not visa versa.
^^^What a brilliant post.
I finally decided to buckle, and buy a new 15” MBP, but I have to say that it is the least exciting and least anticipated Apple purchase I’ve ever made. The Touchbar is a useless, unnecessary, cutesy piece of sh**. USB-C is an underachiever. And I dread not having MagSafe for the first time in years.
My thoughts are the same as yours so, well put jdw!
I still have mileage with the Air and a 2011 MBP but there is very little in the new MBPs that appeals to me and I would rather have a 15" inch option without a Touchbar.
They are also priced out of my comfort zone for what is on offer with regards to my needs.
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.
You're mistaken. The US intelligences agencies (no friend to Trump) are the ones who laid down the case against that brand, telling the intelligence committee they are controlled by China. These are the same US intelligence agencies that said Russia helped Trump win. I see no reason to doubt them because android.
Except the Russians didn’t help him win and they’ve stated this in countless ways from directors current and past.
The modern history of Apple has weathered two previous recessions: one in the early 2000s following the Dotcom Bust, and then the Great Recession of the late 2000s that hit after the 2007 Financial Crisis. Note that both of these happened to coincide with the emergence of major new products that fundamentally changed Apple's core: first iPod and then iPhone.
It's a safe bet they are just wrong again.
All that and DED doesn't predict what is the next product that allows Apple to weather and even grow in the next recession. Is it the watch? It is definitely growing. Or is it the Car? or the next TV service? Is it the HomePod? Apple must have sold a ton because they cut the Price to $250 everywhere during Christmas. And how much will it bring in to fuel years of growth of the stock like the iphone did?
(I think there needs to be a new SIRI. SIRI is the product/services that just drags down every other Apple product. I totally passed on the HomePod even when I could have picked up 4 of them this Christmas because of Siri).
It’s not clear Cook will be bold enough to break Apple out of growing and protecting legacy markets. He’s a great manager, not a visionary.
I think what’s missing in this story is what iPhones (and other Apple products) should cost. This prevents an endless subjective discussion.
A fair estimate should be the BOM (bill of materials), assembly and transport cost, development cost for this specific iPhone (development cost divided by the number of iphones sold) and 10 maybe 15% profit. In case of the iPhoneXS this is https://www.techspot.com/news/76629-1249-iphone-xs-max-costs-apple-443-make.html about $443 plus max $60 development cost (12 billion development cost overall / 200 million devices) for a $1249 iPhoneXS. This means that Apple is asking 2 1/2 times the real cost of the device (+$750) while they should ask $550. I would call this a ripoff factor of 2.
An excellent editorial. Thank you, Daniel Eran Dilger. And truly, no one who has proclaimed doom upon Apple has ever been right. With that said, I do take issue with the lone premise that "Apple has gone through this before and emerged unscathed" (which is my own interpretation and summary of the editorial).
The editorial starts off talking about the G4 Cube (hint, hint -- I obviously own one, and it still works fine, and I still love it) being expensive and more form than function. And yet the article misses the fact that the MacBook Pro, while always having been expensive, put more emphasis on form than function starting in late 2016.
MacBook Pros are Apple's best selling computer, and sales are at their peak. So the reception for MBP from buyers is not really anything like the muted response to G4 Cube, a model that was effectively a G4 in a fancy case that limited expansion but was $200 more. MPB technology isn't available in a cheaper version that most buyers would prefer, and while lots of people like to gripe about elements (keyboard, ports, the usual) it is selling very well. Nobody else in the industry is selling anything close to the number premium notebooks Apple is at any price.
I think what’s missing in this story is what iPhones (and other Apple products) should cost. This prevents an endless subjective discussion.
A fair estimate should be the BOM (bill of materials), assembly and transport cost, development cost for this specific iPhone (development cost divided by the number of iphones sold) and 10 maybe 15% profit. In case of the iPhoneXS this is https://www.techspot.com/news/76629-1249-iphone-xs-max-costs-apple-443-make.html about $443 plus max $60 development cost (12 billion development cost overall / 200 million devices) for a $1249 iPhoneXS. This means that Apple is asking 2 1/2 times the real cost of the device (+$750) while they should ask $550. I would call this a ripoff factor of 2.
You are abusing your user name to the point of it being a joke.
The modern history of Apple has weathered two previous recessions: one in the early 2000s following the Dotcom Bust, and then the Great Recession of the late 2000s that hit after the 2007 Financial Crisis. Note that both of these happened to coincide with the emergence of major new products that fundamentally changed Apple's core: first iPod and then iPhone.
It's a safe bet they are just wrong again.
All that and DED doesn't predict what is the next product that allows Apple to weather and even grow in the next recession. Is it the watch? It is definitely growing. Or is it the Car? or the next TV service? Is it the HomePod? Apple must have sold a ton because they cut the Price to $250 everywhere during Christmas. And how much will it bring in to fuel years of growth of the stock like the iphone did?
(I think there needs to be a new SIRI. SIRI is the product/services that just drags down every other Apple product. I totally passed on the HomePod even when I could have picked up 4 of them this Christmas because of Siri).
It’s not clear Cook will be bold enough to break Apple out of growing and protecting legacy markets. He’s a great manager, not a visionary.
Cook risked the iPad market by introducing the low price iPad mini (something pundits like to say Jobs "wouldn't have done"). That turned out to be brilliant in terms of selling huge volumes of iPads and establishing a vast installed base. He then turned around and introduced larger iPhones that also ate into iPad, (another thing Jobs supposedly "wouldn't have done"), which nearly doubled iPhone volumes and massively hiked up Apple's profitability from iOS devices overall.
Apple Watch was embarked upon as a risky move that pundits claimed would divert Apple's attention from important markets to try a gadget that might flop like everyone else's watches did. Was correct and implemented the plan to perfection. Turned the dying iPod into a bigger hit than iPod had been under Jobs.
HomePod is early to talk about without any facts available, but it's helping make AirPlay 2 into something that third parties (including frenemy Samsung) to license it when they could be pushing their own proprietary protocols (Samsung has a couple already) or working on industry collaborations like Miracast.
Cook has often stated he's not afraid of cannibalizing existing products.
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.
haha, in your imagination. don't be silly.
China declares it will stop selling iPhones if Trump imposes tariffs
Iphone sales are down because China has encouraged Chinese to buy chinese products in retaliation for the Huawei arrest and continued hardline policy and perceived insults of China from Donald Trump. Trump is singlehandedly destroying the reputation and sales of American companies in the worlds 2nd largest market.
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.
haha, in your imagination. don't be silly.
China declares it will stop selling iPhones if Trump imposes tariffs
Iphone sales are down because China has encouraged Chinese to buy chinese products in retaliation for the Huawei arrest and continued hardline policy and perceived insults of China from Donald Trump. Trump is singlehandedly destroying the reputation and sales of American companies in the worlds 2nd largest market.
It may be the world’s second largest market, but it’s also a pretty rigged market (as your own post reveals). With massive IP theft and lack of market access for US tech firms thrown in for good measure.
Someone has to call them out, and for good. I am not entirely happy with what that has meant for me in the short term as an Apple shareholder, but it’s something I am more than willing to ride out for the long haul.
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.
haha, in your imagination. don't be silly.
China declares it will stop selling iPhones if Trump imposes tariffs
Iphone sales are down because China has encouraged Chinese to buy chinese products in retaliation for the Huawei arrest and continued hardline policy and perceived insults of China from Donald Trump. Trump is singlehandedly destroying the reputation and sales of American companies in the worlds 2nd largest market.
It may be the world’s second largest market, but it’s also a pretty rigged market (as your own post reveals). With massive IP theft and lack of market access for US tech firms thrown in for good measure.
Someone has to call them out, and for good. I am not entirely happy with what that has meant for me in the short term as an Apple shareholder, but it’s something I am more than willing to ride out for the long haul.
Likewise. I’ve seen the knockoffs and rampant IP theft there for myself, so I’m enjoying this President taking them to the woodshed.
Comments
Apple could ride out just about any worst worst case scenario if Ronald McDonald was the CEO.
The editorial starts off talking about the G4 Cube (hint, hint -- I obviously own one, and it still works fine, and I still love it) being expensive and more form than function. And yet the article misses the fact that the MacBook Pro, while always having been expensive, put more emphasis on form than function starting in late 2016. The MacBook reeks of that, and now the MacBook AIR. So when the pro-Apple media time and time again admits the G4 Cube was "a failure due to price and form over function," that same pro-Apple media needs to admit something similar when it comes to Apple's design and pricing decisions since late 2016, at least when it comes to the notebook line, which is a very important product line among all the Macs Apple sells.
Even AppleInsider recently admitted that a USB-C-only trek to CES was hardship due to the ubiquity of USB-A, and consider well how long USB-C has been on the market. It doesn't matter how superior a standard is to an old standard if people, regardless of reason, cling to the old standard. Apple is therefore now somewhat out of touch with the needs of The Rest of Us when it comes to making machines that bridge the needs of today with the tech of tomorrow.
Putting just one USB-A port on the 15" MBP (where there's space aplenty to do that) would have eliminated a mountain of complaints. Had there been 3 USB-C ports and 1 USB-A, the USB-C worshippers surely wouldn't have complained and neither would legacy USB-A product users. All would have been satisfied with that kind of decision, but three are other considerations too. Having a good keyboard (unlike the butterfly we have now) is still possible in a thin and light enclosure, as Windows ultrabooks have shown. Stripping away useful features like the SD card slot, extension power cord in box, LED on charging cable, MagSafe, and adding useless features like the TouchBar, and then eliminating fun features like the glowing Apple logo are all obnoxious changes to satisfy a Johnny Ive who has run dry of insanely great ideas, rather than improvements that benefit the Mac-loving masses. These are facts that we should not try to defend only because we love Apple, but instead admit them as failures, just as Steve Jobs did when Apple screwed up under his watch. "The launch of MobileMe was not our finest hour," Steve said. In like manner, the emphasis of form over function in Apple notebooks is also not indicative of Apple's finest.
In the end, I want Apple to succeed. Believe me, as an AAPL shareholder since 1999, I really, really want them to succeed. But I also want to continue being enthralled by and attracted to Macs. It saddens me to admit that I have zero attraction to Apple notebooks today. Even if they were 50% off, I wouldn't buy them because the mid-2015 15" MBP is a Mac that satisfies my needs today and can run the latest MacOS. It's just that at some future point I will need to upgrade, and I shudder to think how stripped-down those future machines will be in light of how form takes so much more precedence than function in today's Apple notebooks. Indeed, the only great computer that Apple makes is the iMac (no SD card slot on the 2018 Mini keeps it from greatness). And while that's a perfect choice for a Mac desktop machine, there is need for great features in an Apple-branded notebook too.
Look, we Mac users who have been with Apple since 1984 know full well about Apple being pricey relative to silly DOS and Windows machines. But the question is, does Apple make a Mac that satisfies the needs of most Mac users today? And no, that question doesn't mean "satisfy me when I buy add-on dongles?" but rather "satisfy me with features out of the box, as is?" For me, and for many other Mac lovers, that answer is sadly, No. We aren't satisfied. And it's not because we are chronic complainers. Indeed, Apple did satisfy our needs in the past. And for that reason, many among us cannot help but feel Apple's pricing is not inline with the features we get versus the features we need and expect. Give us the features we need and crave and we will love you in spite of the price. We the consumer keep Apple alive and well, not visa versa.
Till then they are just on the Periphery of people's digital life. And Apple has a few years to catch Siri Up.
(I think there needs to be a new SIRI. SIRI is the product/services that just drags down every other Apple product. I totally passed on the HomePod even when I could have picked up 4 of them this Christmas because of Siri).
Its 56001 DSP and cusom Apple (nee NeXT) made communication crossbar was really advanced but again, helas, not realy usesfull. I once made a matrix calculation test and had to compute 1024x1024 and larger matrices to get an advantage using its DSP, otherwise the 68040 was better. I concluded that the communication bandwidth was its bottleneck.
Later versions of NeXTStep made this clear by removing DSP support, even Ensemble (a very good looking synthesiser was demoted to the 68040, but could be restored to its former DSP glory...).
Still, if I remember correctly, running Mathematica on NeXTStep’s superior display postscript system looked much better than on a current Mac ...
I finally decided to buckle, and buy a new 15” MBP, but I have to say that it is the least exciting and least anticipated Apple purchase I’ve ever made. The Touchbar is a useless, unnecessary, cutesy piece of sh**. USB-C is an underachiever. And I dread not having MagSafe for the first time in years.
I still have mileage with the Air and a 2011 MBP but there is very little in the new MBPs that appeals to me and I would rather have a 15" inch option without a Touchbar.
They are also priced out of my comfort zone for what is on offer with regards to my needs.
This prevents an endless subjective discussion.
A fair estimate should be the BOM (bill of materials), assembly and transport cost, development cost for this specific iPhone (development cost divided by the number of iphones sold) and 10 maybe 15% profit.
In case of the iPhoneXS this is https://www.techspot.com/news/76629-1249-iphone-xs-max-costs-apple-443-make.html about $443 plus max $60 development cost (12 billion development cost overall / 200 million devices) for a $1249 iPhoneXS.
This means that Apple is asking 2 1/2 times the real cost of the device (+$750) while they should ask $550.
I would call this a ripoff factor of 2.
Apple Watch was embarked upon as a risky move that pundits claimed would divert Apple's attention from important markets to try a gadget that might flop like everyone else's watches did. Was correct and implemented the plan to perfection. Turned the dying iPod into a bigger hit than iPod had been under Jobs.
HomePod is early to talk about without any facts available, but it's helping make AirPlay 2 into something that third parties (including frenemy Samsung) to license it when they could be pushing their own proprietary protocols (Samsung has a couple already) or working on industry collaborations like Miracast.
Cook has often stated he's not afraid of cannibalizing existing products.
China declares it will stop selling iPhones if Trump imposes tariffs
https://www.extremetech.com/electronics/239376-china-declares-will-stop-selling-iphones-trump-imposes-tariffs
Chinese Huawei supplier will punish staff for buying Apple iPhone in show of support for troubled tech giant
https://m.scmp.com/business/companies/article/2177290/chinese-huawei-supplier-will-punish-staff-buying-apple-iphone
Iphone sales are down because China has encouraged Chinese to buy chinese products in retaliation for the Huawei arrest and continued hardline policy and perceived insults of China from Donald Trump. Trump is singlehandedly destroying the reputation and sales of American companies in the worlds 2nd largest market.
https://www.reddit.com/r/investing/comments/aca1ct/are_iphone_sales_slowing_down_or_is_that_the_us/
Just a few posts on the internet.
Someone has to call them out, and for good. I am not entirely happy with what that has meant for me in the short term as an Apple shareholder, but it’s something I am more than willing to ride out for the long haul.