danox
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Google's default search payments to Apple at risk in antitrust lawsuit
mpantone said:
This is false.danox said:Apple is the only one that’s not squatting all over the other platforms ecosystems. (ie..Safari on Windows which was rightfully, canned by Apple)
Apple does have a presence on other platforms which Apple has carefully groomed over years. iTunes has been a longtime presence on Windows and is still available to manage media content to transfer to iDevices (iPhones, iPads, old iPods, etc.).
Apple Music has a presence too, including Android devices in the form of an app on the Google Play Store. This includes a separate Apple Classical Music app too.
And let's not forget about Apple TV which is all over the place. My LG OLED television (running webOS) has an Apple TV app. Yes, it's also available on the Google Play Store for Android smartphones as well as streaming devices like Roku.
Shazam is another Apple service that has a longtime Android app.
So understand that Apple plays the same game too trying to entice non-iPhone/non-Mac users to enjoy Apple services (which now generate a substantial percentage of Apple's revenue).
It's not just about iPhone and Mac hardware sales anymore. That ended about ten years ago. Apple fanboys cannot take a "holier than thou" attitude about this topic.
In any case Apple needs to offer some sort of search engine capability to their users since they don't run their own search engine. Apple's thought process in 2025 is probably "Well, we could just let people choose one from a list during the setup process but most people will pick Google anyhow so why don't we just get paid for it?" One of the first things that I do in setting up a new Apple device (and web browsers) is to change the default search engine to DuckDuckGo. But Apple still gets bucks from Google. That's fine by me. I'm an indirect shareholder of both companies anyhow (like any American with a retirement account).
A real presence on another platform is an actual native piece of software on Windows or Android other than Apple Music, Apple TV, and Apple devices apps does Apple have apps like Final Cut Pro, Safari, Message, Logic, Pages, Numbers, Photos for Windows or Android? Communication to a iPhone or an iPad to a Windows device isn’t quite the same but it is very important for Apple to sell devices.Apple has no presence on their platforms aside from the bare minimum (bridge connection) programs for the iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, AirPods making sure that their hardware can interface with Windows, and their presence on Android is even less, and where are they on the Meta platform?Is there even one, most of what Meta does is freeload on other people’s platforms, just because some of those companies are squatting on Apple‘s platforms does not mean that Apple has the same level/presence on theirs in fact, Apple doesn’t. They have just enough on the Windows platform to sell their devices.
As far as the search engine is concerned once the $20 billion dollars goes away courtesy of the court system. Apple probably won’t have any choice but to get into search like getting into Apple Maps.
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How Steve Jobs saved Apple with the iMac 27 years ago
williamh said:
The arm had a tendency to go bad and no longer support the weight of the screen, leaving the screen flopping down. It was a cool design but I don’t think they worked that well.s.metcalf said:They still haven’t beaten that iMac G4’s floating display arm. That computer got a lot of sales in customer service/kiosks for that reason alone.And yet today a bunch of geeks/analysts think Apple should come out with a niche folding iPhone with a crease in the middle?
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Developers will have a hard time getting App Store users to buy directly
pixeltini said:HOLD IT! Just a second. Let me pick myself up. Are you saying the App Store has value for developers??
Next you'll be telling me software developers should pay something for the security and convenience offered by the App Store.The Apple App Store has value like being part of the EU when it comes to businesses in the UK selling to the other 27 European countries without barriers, many uninformed (developers) think otherwise (ie..Brexit) and are now going to pay for their stupidity, a good developer (small/medium sized) making a good product can avoid all the red tape all of the headaches and the extra cost by being in the App Store.It allows them to compete with the so-called big boys, (which the big boys hate) the big boys want special treatment to camp inside the Apple App Store because Apple has done all of the hard work and they think they should get a freebie because they’re entitled. But most will find that it won’t be a pot of gold because many people will not leave the App Store nor will they put up with subscriptions left and right.
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Google's default search payments to Apple at risk in antitrust lawsuit
Google search payment was is and always has been target number one for the Justice Department from day, one. Who are we kidding? If you want true competition, get all of the large, so-called gatekeeper companies off each other’s platform if you want to see real competition top to bottom. If you look closely, actually, you don’t really have to look closely. Apple is the only one that’s not squatting all over the other platforms ecosystems. (ie..Safari on Windows which was rightfully, canned by Apple)Apple, not being a monopoly, not controlling the larger market always has to design something in house to support selling their hardware when something becomes successful because the public likes using it, In a frictionless manner then the complaints of monopoly come up after Apple has shown the way towards customer satisfaction, and ease of use.It is worth noting that Apple still has significant room for improvement in this area, particularly regarding the App Store. While the App Store can be populated with millions of programs, it should not be cluttered with a legion of poor programs from a user perspective. In recent years, approximately five to six years after the initial gold rush, the quality of the content has deteriorated to the extent that I find it challenging to use the App Store. In essence, Apple needs to evaluate the programs more closely based on their actual quality rather than prioritizing quantity at all costs.
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iPhone Fold rumored to cost over $2000
avon b7 said:
There are some things to consider here.charlesn said:Zero surprise. Galaxy Fold 6 ranges from $1600 to nearly $2K at Best Buy, depending on storage, So it sounds like Apple will be within a few hundred of those numbers. Why Apple would introduce this extremely niche and expensive bridge to nowhere is beyond me, but I also can't believe that all these predictions of its arrival are wrong. Apple has never felt the "me, too" need to chase Android gimmicks. and it's hard to see the Galaxy Fold as anything more than that when it has generated such little sales traction after six years on the market. Same for the Pixel Fold, although that has been around for only two years. Who knows? Maybe Apple will have come up with some compelling use cases by the time it arrives that will justify its stratospheric price and fragility when you inevitably drop it to a broader audience than either Samsung or Google has reached, but I'm not sure what those would be.
Apple is having a tough time competing in China. There are a few reasons for that but I'll highlight just two.
NEV sales are going through the roof there and the 'smarts' in those cars are very smart - blowing way past anything CarPlay can offer. Hundreds of thousands (and rising fast) of those cars are running HarmonyOS so anyone with a Huawei phone tied to a Huawei-partnered car will see the benefits. The opposite is also true. If one of those cars takes your fancy, getting a Huawei phone (or tablet, wearable, TV...) makes a lot of sense.
Xiaomi is another example although so far they only have one car.
What can Apple do to counter that situation if they have no competing product?
Folding phones are reaching maturity in many ways but remain expensive. That keeps the marketshare of folding phones down.
Prices especially of flip phones however, are seeing more affordable versions come to market.
Similar to the car situation if you want a folding experience, Apple is not going to get the sale because it has no folding option. You would have to look elsewhere.
It has been said that if the Huawei Mate XT hit sales of 500,000 units (unthinkable to my mind) it would bring in $1.5B in revenue. Yet just last week there were (unsubstantiated) reports of it having sold 400,000 units (in spite of the incredible price tag). In basically one quarter.
That model has now got a 'global' release so it's anybody's guess how many will be sold. Prices start at 3,699€ in the EU.
Now the Pura X has hit the Chinese market too with it's unusual form factor but great screen ratio.
Throw in the likes of Oppo, Honor, Samsung etc and there are lots of folding options to choose from and thinness, weight, creases etc are beginning to look like non-issues.
It's hard not to see Apple losing sales (especially in China) as a result of not having a folding phone.
There will clearly be a threshold to lost sales beyond which Apple must respond. Perhaps these reports are simply Apple gearing up to stop a trickle of lost sales turning into a flood.
The outlier here is maybe Google. While the US is shielded (quite literally now) from a wide spread of folding/flip options on home soil, if a Pixel Fold came to market offering Chinese level engineering, Apple would possibly be in a spot of bother (assuming there is untapped demand for foldables there).Samsung is having an even a harder time competing in China. They’re nowhere to be found zero….
