gilly33

fulwild said:

The reports of Note 7's "bursting into flames" are greatly exaggerated. Usually there is much more smoke than flame and there are clearly parts of the phone that show no evidence of flame at all. Where there's smoke there isn't always very much fire.

lkrupp said:

wood1208 said:

When you compare across the spectrum of users, Apple's laptops are definitely lot more reliable comparing to Windows. IBM said the support cost for MACs are lot lower than Windows machines. In this article, performance wise, compare the same processors inside than different Gen(7th vs 8th) and dual vs quad core.

Okay, you forgot what the article was about. They took similarly priced hardware and compared them. The Windows box won, period. The last paragraph said that the new MacBook Pro would likely keep up but it is now considerably more expensive than the the Razer they tested. According to a significant number of users here and elsewhere ALL that counts is performance vs price and in that comparison Apple hardware is overpriced and underperforming trash. We’re not talking about macOS or the experience or anything else. We’re talking bang for buck and Apple loses big time.

The whole narrative for Apple has changed recently. Now it’s about price and price alone. All the analysts, all the blogs (including AI), all the critics, all the trolls, have zeroed in on price as the be-all-end-all of value. This competition review proves the point. Dollar for dollar of performance, Apple hardware sucks and always has. To the new breed of Apple critics the concept of premium prices for premium hardware is anathema. They’re all made in the same factory and contain the same third party components as everybody else. So price is the only scale by which to make a judgement now. Apple has no reason to exist in this new world. Neither does BMW, or Tesla, or Cuisinart, or Hermes, or Rolex, or Gucci, or Coach, or Calphlon for that matter. 

lkrupp said:

andrehinds said:

So many people complain that the iPad Pro can't replace their computer. 

Nope. It’s so many people posting on anonymous tech blogs that the iPad Pro can’t replace their computer. Apple deals with the real world and real markets. Desktop and laptop traditionalists who rant on tech blogs are not the real world nor are they the real market. In the real world and real markets the iPad continues to make inroads in the Enterprise, education, home use. The iPad naysayers are the crowd that, when Apple changes a single feature or option, blows a gasket because their “workflow” has been disturbed, making their whole installation “useless”. 

cgWerks said:

Generally agree with the points the article makes...
But, I think there are some things it missed.

One of the problem with '90s Apple, is that Apple was actually doing several of the things the industry pundits, experts, media, etc. and typical tech business minds would think to do. They were being run more like every other tech business. The media didn't jump all over them until that strategy started to fail.

Sure, Apple now has enough cash and success that such moves are much less likely to get them in trouble than in the past. But, I see some of those same trends happening today. The articles' argument seems to be... yeah, but this time Apple is making money with all the silly 'moonshots'. And, I suppose they are, but that doesn't mean they aren't equally silly and distracting from things that should be primary.

I was listening to an interview today of Guy Kawasaki on Jordan Harbinger's podcast. Guy wrapped up the interview with a few lessons we can learn from Steve's life. The one that caught my attention, was that Steve had taste. He was passionate about well-designed things.

I agree, and that's the big difference between technically advanced products, and truly great products. For example, take Samsung's recent folding phone fiasco. Having a screen that can fold is some incredible technology, for sure. It's also silly and fraught with problems. Or, there are a ton of Windows PCs out there that are technically pretty competent machines. But, no taste.

And, that also highlights part of the problem with Apple since Steve's death. They seem a bit more taste-challenged since then. They have great talent and technology, for sure, but products are starting to drift off into areas that IMO, Steve would have nixed or made them re-do.

When you combine a lack of taste, with typical tech business 'wisdom' I think that is a recipe for problems. However, having hundreds-of-billions-of-dollars in the bank can cover a heck of a lot of them. I've worked in side a Fortune 100 (nearly Fortune 50). I've seen how royally an operation of that magnitude can mess up and still chugging along. Apple is now at that point, kind of like a freight train. They could mess up a LOT and still keep chugging along (hence, why the 'doomed' prognosis is a bit nuts).

But, that doesn't mean Apple will be what they once were, just that they aren't going out of business any time soon. I hope they will be what they once were and more. In some ways they are. In other ways, I think they are worse than the '90s. What I'd rally like to see is Apple with their current resources AND the taste/vision they once had. Maybe that is now impossible, but I think they could be doing better than they are... and that makes me kind of sad.

guscat said:

If he's going back 15 years, he's also leaving out the original MacBook Air and the iPhone in addition to all of the other products listed. What is the last great Apple product they designed, the 2004 iMac?

As for TVs, they are a very low margin product that has to interact even now with cable. Coming out with a new TV is a lot harder than I think he realizes.

lkrupp said:

mubaili said:

Apple must not talk itself into believing that it cannot gain more market share. It must act aggressively, speed up the cycle, and push more variety of devices, i.e., do what they have done to the iPad line up to the iPhone line up. 

Blah, blah, blah, yada, yada, yada. The Macintosh has never had more than a 10% share of the worldwide market and it has been a success for Apple all these years. Discerning customers see the value and TCO of Apple products and are very willing to pay the mythical Apple Tax. When has Apple EVER had a dominating share of ANY market? They have literally created or boosted markets out of thin air (personal computers, portable music players, smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, etc) only to see them dominated by cheap knock-offs and lookalikes. Through it all Apple has remained true to its mission statement to provide well designed, reliable, usable products that customers like to use. Again, tech blog forums like AI are filled with comments from a market segment that doesn’t value design, only cares about specs, and wants everything cheap.