wanderso

I will be happy to get a bent one for 50% off. .  

I purchased a used iPhone 6 from a coworker recently for a family member.   This coworker is meticulous about their things and has never placed their phone in their pants pocket.  I had taken it to the Apple Store to have the $29 battery swap before the deal expires on 12/31.  Apple performed an inspection in store and said “we may not be able to swap out the battery because the chassis is bent.”  Sure enough, it was if you looked carefully.  The 2nd tech who was to actually do the repair reluctantly gave it a green light.  

I know that the 6 was part of “bend gate”.  It makes me wonder if it left the factory already bent.

Based on my experience at the Apple store, I would be concerned to have a new iPad Pro where the same story might unfold without my happy ending.    

adm1 said:

Excellent use of apple watch and Siri. Surprised she hit the steering wheel though - surely an airbag would have went off in such a new car (Nissan Rogue/Qashqai) and the seatbelt would have tightened instantly (was she wearing one?). Airbags are not only for frontal impacts, I remember my old 2003 Renault Laguna deploying various airbags including the steering wheel when I was hit from the side.

Airbags don't always deploy. It depends on the sensors that are tripped and other factors. I was hit in a severe side impact in a 2008 Jeep with front and side impact airbags. None of them deployed. Upon independent investigation that I required, the sensors were not tripped and it was deemed that it worked properly as designed.  In my case  the force of the impact pushed me against the door, resulting in significant bruising and neck injury. My son broke his finger and my daughter had back injury. All of us were wearing seat belts and we weren't moving at the time when the driver hit us by running a red light at full traffic speed. 

She sounds to have many qualities of a capable executive, along with some very helpful prior experiences for this new role.  One cannot rise through roles like this and last as long as she has without the respect of her team as well. 

Soli said:

My only concern about the student IDs via NFC if they will work when the device has no battery power. While that's certainly handy, I don't think it's safe that someone could lose or have an iPhone stolen and then when the power runs out it will still allow access to dorm by pressing the Sleep/Wake button. 

caladanian said:

Please explain what “open loop” technology for London tube is - and it’s (dis)advantage is. 

I think this will answer everything for you:

• https://clearbridgemobile.com/open-vs-closed-loop-mobile-payments/

LukeCage said:

Well most disruptions don't start off with people trying to actually disrupt an industry, they just try to get a niche and the rest is history. However in this case, Apple being as big as it is, if they said that they were trying, they would have regulatory boards in America and Europe all over them. For Apple to disrupt the credit card industry, imo, they would have to go after the banks, but banks now are much bigger and more powerful than they used to be. I'm not saying it's impossible but it's would be a pretty hard task to accomplish. 

I believe Apple choose the best solution and I'm happy to say it's the solution I proffered years before Apple Pay was ever introduced. My only wish is that the extra security for using Apple Pay would result in lower transaction fees for retailers which would help them advertise this option more, and for mom-and-pop shops with discreet card readers that have mostly supported Apple Pay (and all other NFC-based scanners to have the company that supplies the device notify them that they can take these *Pay payments.

If anyone wants to help with increasing the saturation in your area you can order—free of charge—register and door stickers from Apple that you can give to those businesses when you come across them. I don't do it for Apple; I do it for myself, because the sooner I can reach a tipping point where I can more freely not carry my physical cards on me the more convenient my life will be.

• https://www.applepaysupplies.com/home

The newest iPhone supports an option to still work for NFC with a dead battery.  

In respect to a person finding a lost iPhone and using it to gain access to a building, this is also true for any employee and student ID that is lost.  In most cases, there is no need to show your photo ID to access a building; one just taps the badge to the reader.  A thief gets the same access as a student or employee if the card isn’t reported as lost.   Using a phone’s NFC can mean some security loss in that the person’s face is not associated with building access. I suppose that an added safety feature of Apple’s method is that Face ID on the newest phones would be a potential means to verify that the person accessing the building is in fact the phone’s owner and appropriate to gain access. 

On the transit pass comment, Portland, Oregon’s Trimet already supports Apple Pay.  It has since summer 2017.  I have to think that Portland is not the only US city to support Apple Pay for transit. 

Samsung having over $9 billion in net income projected is not a terrible quarter. It’s down, but many public companies are not profitable.  

Samsung sells a lot more than smart phones and memory. They have a much more diverse product line than Apple.   Apple doesn’t design and sell washing machines, TVs, cameras, Blu-Ray DVD players, lithium ion batteries, hard drives, and refrigerators, for example. 

They are more of a conglomerate, on the likes of Siemens AG. 

I am like some others here. Apple Air Pods don’t stay in my ears. 

Umm... this is weird. It actually reveals a flaw in Apple’s identification of their phones.  Unlike many other consumer products, there is no physical serial number, QR code or bar code representing one on the case of an iPhone.  If there was, repair could simply scan it and verify if the phone is authentic, who it is registered to, and under warranty.  If the scammer copies a real serial number, it could be flagged as a duplicate. Even having the serial # inside the phone would work, although then the tech has to crack it open.   The serial number can still also be contained in the software, just also have a physical one. The flaw in my suggestion comes when Apple or a 3rd party replaces the case with one that is not original, but those different number case backs could also be registered to the previously repaired phone. A 3rd party replacing the case back already voids the warranty.   Apple could also install a passive RFID tag inside the phone instead of the above suggestions with the device’s serial number. These can be scanned by the service tech before cracking it open. Don’t get paranoid, it can be a near field RFID (set the phone on a plate like when you charge an iPhone 8 or newer). 

Don’t worry. If Apple somehow designs and produces their own modem, Qualcomm will find some way to claim it uses Qualcomm-patented technology.

Each one of these seem like a possIble “deal with a possible devil”, but may be a required path.  Recall though that Apple has this same problem at the very beginning of the iPhone. They shipped a 2G model when 3G was coming to market. At the time, despite having plenty of Apple products at home, I bought my last blackberry, which happened to be 3G and thus I was stuck in a 2 year contract.   

My first iPhone was the 3GS.  

In today’s reality, 4G is still “good enough” for Apple to use until later 2020 because the true use cases for the speed benefits of 5G are still materializing.  Apple has done this strategy time and again. 

When 5G is prevalent, we may still be getting robbed by the rates that most US carriers charge. Thus, it will be just a faster rush to hitting a data cap. 

5G’s true promise may be for in the home, giving the Comcast’s of the world a true run for the money with consumers wanting data access.  

If the carriers are smart, they will realize that they can do much the same with in home options as they have been in killing off traditional land line phones for many homes. They would just help many to truly cut the cord.  This will require easing data caps and reducing throttling of connection speeds. 

One last thought-  there is a time when we may all have high bandwidth needs but the infrastructure of the internet can’t truly handle the load, regardless of how we connect to it. It will be like a Ferrari stuck in rush hour traffic.  Or the earlier days of the AT&T network when it was the only option for the iPhone. 

corrections said:

wanderso said:

While the focus of this article is specific to iPhone pricing in China, I believe that Apple needs to revive an entry level iPhone in their lineup that isn’t simply continuing to produce last year’s model at a lower price.   Much of the internals can still be from the old phone, but having something that is new to this less expensive phone brings appeal to budget conscious buyers.  I realize that the XR could be said to fulfill that, but it still isn’t quite at the right price point for what I am meaning.  

Why do this?  Apple is attempting a further shift towards services.  There is a hardware $$ barrier of entry to these services set by the prices for Apple premium products.  By having “budget friendly” options, the potential base for these services greatly expands.  One may argue that budget conscious buyers may be less apt to buy these services, but people on tighter budgets seem to always find a means to pay for entertainment options (for example) at the level that they can afford.  If Apple services were strong enough from a product sales mix perspective, they could sell the phones at much lower margins and make up the difference (and more!) through this strategy.   Apple’s huge cash horde allows them to consider to enter a market with deeper investments than virtually all of their competitors. Sometimes these investments come in the form of less margin.  
If Apple does not do this, their services uptick will not reach the dominance that they could. 

How cheap does hardware have to get to reach people who will actually pay for these services? People buying $400 phones aren't paying for top tier services. They are stealing movies.

Samsung couldn't sell Milk music to its $200 ASP audience of smartphone buyers. Why do you suppose? 

Google can't sell half the apps to its Play audience despite having twice the volume of people.

Subsidizing hardware sometimes makes sense: Xbox and Playstation were always sold at or below cost, but they made it up in licensing $80 games. How will Apple break even on phones and make enough to replace that with services? It won't. Much smarter to be an Apple than to be a Samsung, which is pretty much exactly what you're saying Apple "needs" to be to gain critical mass. Does not appear to be true.  

Stating holistically that people paying $400 for a phone are thieves is a huge, and frankly, offensive leap in your argument.  The other notes you share bring merit.

Auto manufacturers sell lower price, entry level vehicles to get people into the market and connect to the brand.  They don’t offer 3 year old models packaged as “new” like Apple does with the iPhone 7 for $449.

Many people with lesser means pay for premium, but still affordable in small chunks services every day.  Starbucks is an example when coffee was otherwise 50 cents.

Many other people also buy things based on value, even if they have the financial means to pay top dollar for an iPhone XS Plus.  

Most printers are also sold at a loss. The manufacturers make it up on the consumables.   I’m not advocating for Apple to do that.