avon b7

mike1 said:

God forbid you make the best product.

Best or not is not the issue here. 

It's about abusing dominant position and harming competition, which in turn stifles innovation. 

I'd like to say "cunning plan Baldrick!" but that would be offensive to poor Baldrick.

So Trump is doing the walk. Walking things back! 

He's making history for all the wrong reasons. 

Kicking the can of uncertainty 90 days down the road.

The US claiming a de-escalation is paramount when it was the US that unnecessarily escalated everything in the first place.

Tariffs on this. Exemptions on that (the same exemptions that hours before being authorised were claimed wouldn't happen!).

Chaos everywhere (not least in the White House itself). A Treasury Secretary who was unable to answer the question 'Who pays the tariffs?'

I will forgive Tim Cook for not having the remotest idea of what could happen next because, quite literally, nobody does. 

As for de-coupling, that is exactly what the US wants but it wants to pick and choose the de-coupling. It wants others to de-couple from China, too (CHIPS Act). 

US cars in China but no Chinese cars in the US. 
Apple in China but no Huawei in the US. 
No Chinese solar panels in the US.
...

All for 'national security', the go-to card for everything (including these tariffs). 

The US is talking up the 'talks' because it has no option but to try and put some spin on a huge mess of its own making. 

AFAIK, the critical minerals restrictions from China are still in place so if nothing changes there, no amount of tariff easing will help Apple once stockpiles are used up production issues pop up. 

MplsP said:

one potential issue/question that I haven't seen answered is how much Apple is paying in patent royalties to QC for their C1 modem. Given QC's cellular patent portfolio it's unlikely Apple could produce a competitive modem without licensing at least some patents. Even if they're covered under FRAND there's still a 'reasonable' fee. If Apple were to put the modem in every MBP then they would likely have to pay a fee for each device, unless they could somehow get an agreement to only pay for the modems in use.

This is the Huawei part of the pie Apple is paying for:

"The event also saw Huawei announcing royalty rates for 4G and 5G handsets, Wi-Fi 6 devices, and Internet of Things (IoT) products, all areas where Huawei is a top SEP owner. The rate caps for 4G and 5G handsets are US$1.5 per unit and US$2.5 per unit, respectively. Huawei’s royalty rate for Wi-Fi 6 consumer devices, meanwhile, is US$0.5 per unit. For IoT, the rate for IoT-Centric devices is one percent of the net selling price, capped at US$0.75, while the rate for IoT-Enhanced devices ranges from US$0.3 to US$1 per unit."

https://www.huawei.com/en/news/2023/7/ipr-innovation-horizon#:~:text=The rate caps for 4G,is US$0.5 per unit.

JonyArhendts said:

These idiots won’t be there in a few years, Apple will… patience.

Yes. Weather the storm. Make half-promises and ride things out.

The situation is crazy right now and the more anyone concedes, the more they will want. 

I've never seen such a wide-ranging bunch of officials so out of their depth and trying to please a president who is not fit for office.

Bessent is supposed to be 'smart' but every time I see him pushed on anything he just spouts stuttering gibberish because he doesn't have answers that fit Trump's orders.

Navarro is a hawk who has always had economically reckless ideas. 

I'll wait to hear the full story from all sides but my first thought was 'Think Secret'. 

VictorMortimer said:

And I confirm that I'm not ever going to buy a BMW car.

(Wasn't anyway, they're maintenance nightmares.  But CarPlay Ultra looks MUCH nicer than anything I've seen out of a car manufacturer.)

Apple's problem was falling between two worlds. 

Infotainment connections from an iPhone and deep integration within the car's onboard compute systems.

The latter could well mean the 'tail wagging the dog' for many auto makers as things got evermore digital.

The potential solution for that was for Apple to move to providing different levels of car platforms that included hardware and software on different levels.

That never happened. 

CarPlay was way behind even in 2021. It's just that US owners never got to see the best of the best solutions. 

Even back in 2021 HarmonyOS was far, far ahead of CarPlay. So much so that even CarPlay Ultra can't touch it today. 

And for years now (in the 'self driving' space) cars have needed mini data centers onboard, with 5G communications, sensing capabilities etc

And anyone providing digital car platforms would be even better positioned if they also provided powertrains, LiDAR, batteries and charging infrastructure.

Apple was never going to be able to move all those pieces at the same time.

Many of the major EU brands are signing up for Huawei's solutions in China and all the real advances are there.

The German brands are really having a hard time competing. 

This is a very good and balanced view on the current state of play on folding phones. 

I think most of the comments are a fair reflection on reality. 

My main qualm perhaps is about putting the iPad Fold plans on pause. 

After following the launch of the Huawei MatePad Fold it was far more compelling than I imagined (at least what I've seen so far) and think an iPad Fold would equally compelling. Especially as only Huawei is really doing the modern folding tablet right now. There are very few fish in that pond (unlike folding phones) and demand would be lower and therefore easier to meet. 

This is a video (in Chinese) that gives a decent overview of what is out there right now. Obviously there are a lot of use case options that don't exist with folding phones and this product is running one OS (the same one that runs on laptops) so moving from a 'tablet' style use to a 'laptop' style use is seamless. 



If Apple has put the project on hold I wonder if it's because resources are being diverted elsewhere or the development is simply not moving as fast as it could due to other pressing issues. 

If the MatePad Fold takes off (it's very expensive) Huawei will have yet another win in the ultra premium segment and Apple will lose more premium customers as a result. 

A folding phone would fill one hole where customers are potentially being lost but cars and tablets/folding tablets is another. 

davidlewis54 said:

Apple knows exactly what it’s doing and is highly innovative.  It creates fantastic products which are very popular.  It has some successes and some failures. It works on ideas and they either happen or they don’t.

Huge numbers of people speculate on what Apple is doing and most of the time they are wrong because they are not Apple and don’t think the same way: nor could a single individual or a few analysts ever think the way Apple does, simply by the number of people Apple employs on R and D, let alone any other reason.

Analysts only think short term. Tech spawns all sorts of nonsense but saying an item or idea is the next greatest thing, and bigging it up to such an extent there is then near catastrophe when it doesn’t happen, as per the DotCom bust of the late 1990s/early 2000s, as one in the boom and bust cycle, is unhelpful at best and extremely costly to the majority of the public which entrusts investment companies with its savings.

The analysts, along with market-makers and the other stakeholders such as private equity firms have no idea about tech or shopping or health care, they are only in it to make a profit.  The stock market is purely gambling, using other people’s money and making up the rules as the market dictates, by those in the market. 

Not many, of the public at large seem to be interested in AI and plenty do not trust it.

Apple will roll out an AI product, when it’s ready which will be when it’s satisfied the product works as Apple wants.  Apple is very attuned to what its customers want and Apple will create something which fits its customers’ requirements.

No speculation, no analysts are required.

If Apple will roll out AI when ready and not many of the public at large are interested in it, why did Apple make such a huge deal out of it at that WWDC and then ship a phone without a single Apple Intelligence feature? 

That alone was telling. As was the fact that so many other iPhones were not able to run it well, including some that were released just a year earlier.

davgreg said:

badmonk said:

and the tariffs on Russia are?

if the American economy survives another 3 and a half years years with this leadership it will be a miracle.

The goal is reciprocal tariffs and a reduction in trade barriers. It will take time as the rest of the world is used to taking advantage of the US in trade by the use of VAT taxes with rebates, tariffs and other trade barriers.  That is hardly something to fuss about.

 

What does VAT have to do with international trade?

It is applied to products at the fiscal point of sale and throughout the supply chain. It does not change because a product was manufactured in or by an external country.

We all know Trump sees VAT as some kind of lever against external trade but that is a very weird way to see things. 

Basically nonsense and the US is in the extreme minority of nations (20?) that don't really use it, whereas some 170 do.