stantheman

This article is yet another reminder that our society is being overtaken by fakery. Those who under-promise and over-deliver are going out of style, because pretend-reality gets more views and higher ratings.

As Apple broadens its product line, more and more products were being included in each general category. Therefore, the category numbers have been growing less meaningful to analysts than they were in the past. Nevertheless, I always liked to read them. If Apple is no longer reporting units, how will Samsung know what figure to fabricate?

The mobile phone carriers here are not supporting two-line service even if you purchase both lines from them — e.g., one phone number for personal calls and another for business. Profit maximizers could earn far larger profits by selling twice as much phone service per iPhone. This strongly suggest that the (temporary) delay in implementing two-line service is not a scheme by carriers to protect profits. The fact that two-line service is available in China does not help update U.S. infrastructure, billing software, existing customer contracts or government regulations.

Although the overall Chinese market for iPhones is potentially as large as American or European markets, size is not the key factor in marketing. The marketing relationship between Apple and its Chinese customers cannot be managed in the same way as it is here. In addition to patent laws that aren’t enforced by Chinese authorities, relatively poor workers may earn far more in a day systematically gouging Apple than they can in regular jobs paying only $2-$3 per hour. Apple is frequently harassed in China for discriminating against Chinese “consumers” when the company cracks down on these professional scams. Longer term, Apple should make arrangements to shift iPhone assembly to robots in factories outside of China. Any tangible asset in that nation is a potential hostage to Beijing’s policies, which have been optimized to control others and plunder their wealth.

Selling nine million iPhone XR’s AFTER a month of selling millions of new XS and XS Max iPhones is quite an accomplishment. Not many years ago, an iPhone launch that sold nine million units was a huge success.