gatorguy

teejay2012 said:

Vestager uses a lot of 'we feel' and 'we are concerned'. Fortunately EU courts are more about the letter of the law than interpretations and I hope this will be like the Apple-Irish tax case.

dewme said:

eightzero said:

dewme said:

All companies have resource limitations and must strategically prioritize how they allocate their limited resources to different initiatives. In addition to resources there are also strategic goals and the matter of focus. It comes down to deciding where they want to apply their focus and how they want to invest in everything they've decide to go after. It's not a case of everything in their focus getting the same level of support. It's a prioritized, tiered system where the most strategically important things get top priority for resources while lower priority things get lower priority for resources. At some point lower tier things may get no priority and are abandoned or postponed indefinitely. There is no such thing as "everything we do is top priority." Saying that is like saying "we have no priorities."

It's pretty clear where Apple's priorities are today and where their priorities were leading up to today. Products like Apple TV and HomeKIt are still alive, as is the iPad mini and iMac, but they certainly aren't getting the kind of love that iPhone, Apple Vision Pro, "AI," Apple Silicon, and MacBook Pro/Air are getting. My guess is that Apple puts its highest priority on products that can dominate the markets they serve. In my opinion, HomeKit is probably in a slow burn mode because of open standards based initiatives like Matter and Thread. Apple can certainly play in an open standards based market, but can they dominate such a market? In terms of Matter/Thread compatible devices, Apple doesn't really have a big footprint when it comes to the number and variety of devices it sources into that market. My guess is that Apple will keep their finger on the pulse of what's happening in the open standards area, but they probably feel no compelling reason to try to drive that market. They'll jump in when an opportunity presents itself where they can differentiate their offerings from the crowd and reap the benefits with a relatively low investment in resources, but the bulk of their strategic investments will continue to be areas where they become the de facto standard by driving the market and dominating when it comes to profitability. 

I'd say the market for general purpose networking gear like AirPort routers is not even on Apple's lowest level of funded initiatives. They currently have no need to play in that market.

Fair analysis, but I disagree with the conclusion. Apple famously stayed away from making a TV (contrary what Gene Muenster claimed for years) because it is indeed a race to the bottom of price list and thus low profit. But yet, Apple did get into a streaming box in a big way, including making content for it on ATV+. Apple also stayed away from monitors for many years, but then offered a premium display for a specific application. Apple really didn't need to "play in that market" but thought they had something to add.

Apple has specific expertise in security and privacy, something many people want and will pay for. Sure, maybe just a copy of the current mesh systems isn't attractive, but combined with router based, controlled, and subscription based VPN...maybe. What else subscription wise would be attractive on a router? Maybe one of the space based services (Starlink and the Amazon competitor?)

Apple's avoidance of the TV market is clearly in line with Apple's avoidance of markets that they cannot dominate or command high margins. As you say, racing to the bottom is not a game that Apple plays. However, Apple is not leaving all of the money a potential Apple branded TV may have put on the table. Their TV+ app being installed on most every modern smart TV. This gives Apple a small piece of that pie at what must be a fairly low investment. To me it looks like once Apple decided to play in the streaming market with TV+ any ambitions around building their own TV plummeted to zero. 

Kuminga said: The EU if you noticed, generally  only goes after American Companies and never their own companies... 

What about BMW, Mercedes  and Louis Vuitton?

davgreg said:

This is Jonathan Kanter's work. Total Socialist.

Guess Biden should hire Hunter to apply his law degree as a consultant on Government Relations. Or maybe buy a few pictures to hang up at Tim's house.

Biden's mis-Administration is the most blatantly political since the Jackson administration. 

The facts are quite simple- consumers are free to buy Windows, Android, Roku and whatever hardware they wish.
Every significant cloud service is easily available to any consumer.
Every significant productivity app is interoperable.
Same for Maps, TV, Music, Books and all the rest.