avon b7

ireland said:

sog35 said:

I think this makes PERFECT sense as far as price:

iPhone 7s - 32GB $650
iPhone 7s - 64GB $750
iPhone 7s - 128GB $850

iPhone X - 64GB $949
iPhone X - 128GB $1049

So basically you pay $199 more to jump from 7s to X. 

So Apple don't have a 64 GB 7 and you expect them to have a 64 GB 7s? Sog-logic.

And where is the iPhone 7 in there? Not even present as a second tier option? And If it were still available, would it slip into that guesstimate range of prices at sub $600?

Soli said:

As the largest NAND consumer this is heavily dependent on their ability to source the necessary components.

If they do move to 64GB I think we'll likely see less concern for IOS 11's size, which could impact those with older devices.

It's not about components. It's about marketing and greed. iPods were so successful in part because Apple invested in assuring capacity. That was then a problem for competitors as they couldn't get their hands on enough components, much less at the prices Apple was getting. 

kamilton said:

Mikeymike said:

Ebonydog said:

Ireland, anyone who was an Apple fan in the 90s can tell you why it matters. Back then Apple had similar advantages to what they have now: elegant design, solid hardware, even an ecosystem of more refined apps and fewer viruses. But they nearly died due to falling market share, which could be attributed to high prices and a lack of vision and discipline on Apples part. The result was a mass migration by developers to the Windows world (Adobe and others used to be Mac only). Yes market share, revenue and profit aren't everything, but they do afford a company the ability to be innovative and daring – the very qualities you want to talk about. Back to the story, what are we seeing in the Chinese market for Apple? Like Apple of the 90s, a lack of vision and high prices. it looks to me like the market is growing at an astonishing rate, and Apple isn't offering enough to justify the high prices. It isn't so much that Apple sales are slowing, it's that they are missing out on a huge wave of opportunity. That's cause for concern.

Good first post. (an anomaly)

Or, a new market evolves this way.  Apple is the premium brand offering the premium experience.  When a new market breaks, it's flooded with players, not unlike the early evolution of auto companies in America.  What do most people buy?  Model T or like cost vehicle.  Ultimately, what do they aspire to?  Porsche, Ferrari, etc.  Early market development, especially in a market highly controlled by government, finds many racing to the bottom for share.  These players are not providing a premium experience.  Probably barely acceptable experiences.  Slowly, customers will want something better.  Apple will be there.  We've seen this in America with the Andoid onslaught.  Poop don't float.  

The car analogy only works if you strip the smart out of 'smartphone' and even then, there are plenty of Android phones that offer the same premium product experience as Apple. 

When you put the 'smart' back in you see the importance of ecosystems (including cloud services). When you have your internet life tied to cloud services via a mobile device, switching 'car' (phone) isn't as straightforward as you might imagine. There are migration issues to take into account.

Android will always be more fragmented than iOS simply because new phones come out every month and there are hundreds of phones that vendors have to consider supporting or not. However, this is a far cry from the problems Android had with fragmentation just a few years ago. From a user perspective, it just isn't an issue. 

Security is far better than it was just a short time ago. The Google Play store is now cleaner than it was and I've been getting security updates pushed out to me that aren't rolled into major system upgrades.

Android users in the mid or lower tiers can aspire to an iPhone - or any other premium model from an Android maker if they want 'something better'.

What Apple has going for it, and it's a big plus, is that many of its users automatically look for another iPhone when but comes to upgrading. They just don't care about Android. They almost always lack any real knowledge on the state of Android and other manufacturers, though. It's the result of good press, marketing and having products that people are satisfied with.

If you fall out of favour with the press or the 'hipsters' you should go to yellow alert as your sales might take a knock sooner rather then later.

sog35 said:

avon b7 said:

"selectively targets Apple"

Yes!

However, this is stating the obvious. This how they try to paint themselves as a victim in this process.

The reality is that they were 'selectively targeted' but along with a whole host of other companies. This should surprise no one. If you think tax evasion is being practised, you single out the biggest offenders first. It's the same all over the world. I may be wrong but I think there are around 300 companies currently under investigation.

Apple wasn't even the first in line. 

http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-15-5880_en.htm

Apple says it paid all tax 'legally due' but ignores one of the key complaints aimed at them by the EU: that Apple's accounting setup allowed it to decide how much it would make available for taxation. So if they decided to make $100 out of $100,000,000 available for taxation they would pay all tax legally due on that sum.

We will see how things play out.

10 years to late.

If EU though Apple was breaking the law they should have said something 10 years ago. Apple has bent over backwards over the last 10 years to make sure their recognition of taxes was correct. EU/Ireland always gave the stamp of approval. Until now.

You can't change the rules midstream. Going forward Apple will follow any tax guidance given by the EU, but they will not go back 10 years and change the past.

Please read the article in the link. The necessary tools to initiate the investigations didn't exist until 2012. This particular investigation has taken three years.

As for stamps of approval I would say if you are declaring and paying your taxes, that is the end of the story, until an investigation is launched and finds otherwise.

And as for bending over backwards, what are you referring to? If you have read the investigation summary you will know that, if anything, Apple bent over backwards to move money away from taxation.

Huawei's business model requires them to get their networking infrastructure installed first and then tie sales to carriers using their technology. The US government has already stepped in twice to stall Huawei becoming part of the telecommunications backbone in the US. I suppose Trump will just continue with that policy.

In the meantime Huawei will just have to follow a different course and market as best it can but it will be a truly formidable force down the line.