kitatit

hucom2000 said:

I don't agree with the end-of-the-world tone of some of the posts. That's just dramatizing for attention.

I do notice however, that I'm having a tougher time defending Apple's product prices. In discussions with friends I mostly share my outrage about them. I think twice about buying something and often don't do it, because I can't "justify it". That's a big change for a 30+ year loyal Apple-fan-boy. 

From my perspective, it's about time Apple's hits a rough patch. It can only benefit us, it's customers. They've clearly gone too far. Innovation & expensive is ok. Greed is not. A correction is very much needed. If they are stubborn about it, the market will do the work for them.

It's like they are too concerned with themselves (as a company). Reminds me of good old Rome. Building palaces right up to the fall.

Spot on! This is exactly how I feel and talk to my friends  about Apple now. I’ve got a 2008 Macbook and an iPhone 6. If Apple hadn’t kept pushing and pushing the price on the MacBooks, I would have bought at least 2-3 replacements by now. Regarding iPhones, I bought the 3,4,5 and 6.... then I skipped 7,8,X and XS. I was so ready to buy an X or an XS as I want several features as well as a major speed boost from my groaning iPhone 6. But their current prices, let alone how that translates here into Australian dollars is truely mind melting. 

I’m totally disgusted with Apple now. I view myself as a pragmatic buyer who sees the value in getting what you pay for and particularly sees the whole value proposition in the Apple ecosystem but now it seems like buying Apple products  is more akin to buying Gucci or Prada. 

10 years ago, you could really see Apple’s market share expanding on the street here, where it critical mass was lifting and including 
more people than just  professionals and well healed buyers. 

I want Apple to succeed but currently, I hope they hurt just to give them a slap and wake up before things really go off the rails. 

There is no chance of me switching from iOS to Android but as I switched from MacOS 9 to Windows in 2001 (and back to MacOS in 2008)
the Mac pricing/value proposition is what might make me change this time, not the crashing OS. 

oberpongo said:

Hope the withings founders buy back their company and continue to develop health accessories. Forget the watch, though! But scales, blood pressure, thermometers and sleep monitors are great companions to the Apple health eco system. 

My thoughts exactly. I’ve had Withings smart scale for 7years and it hasn’t missed a beat.

I groaned when Nokia bought them out. I had all Nokia phoned before I bought the iPhone 3G as I loved their simple straightforward software and elegant hardware. Unfortunately, when more features and complexity arrived in phones, they couldn’t figure out how to keep their OS intuitive and it became a mess.

The Nokia health app is ok but I much preferred Withings own app. Nokia don’t seem to do anything special with user interfaces now.

As far as the Nokia brand goes, it’s permanently damaged. What’s the first thing you think of when you see NOKIA? Probably,
-Complacent phone company who got their head knocked off by Apple and never  recovered.
-Their forced arranged marriage to Microsoft who were as clueless as Nokia had become themselves.

Not really positive images that make you trust  a brand and want to use their products.

Give it up! The Nokia brand has worse than zero value now, let it die. It probably would rather die after being tampered with by MS anyway.

phil sukalewski said:

matrix077 said:

I hope more people doing a test like this. If reports like this won’t push Apple to be serious about SIRI I don’t know what will. 

There’re so many fundamental things SIRI could be improved. If Apple won’t do it I hope they get called out like this until they understand it will hurt their brand. 

(I’m talking about SIRI in general, like on iPhone, not specifically on HomePod.)

Totally agreed. Siri is useless for sending a text and with Maps. It's maddening in downtown Atlanta (on AT&T) that my text gets noted correctly when I speak until it goes to Apple's servers and Siri converts it to nonsense. 

Apple is so focused with gimmick tech for the tweenies that there stuff no longer "just works".

Agreed. People say Apple gets held to a higher
standard than others and other companies get a free pass and don’t get called out when they miss the mark.... This is true. But when you position yourself like Apple does with their high end prices, I and other have close to zero tolerance for a 2nd user experience. 

I use use Siri daily for reminders setting timers and asking very limited questions in maps like “give me directions to my house”.

I’d say around 70% of people here in Australia I
speak to don’t use Siri at all. The Siri brand is seriously damaged to the point where people don’t even consider using it. I persevere and keep hoping it will get better but she honestly does seem to be getting dumber.

The on the ground, local database entry type stuff is just not getting done fast enough.

Spend the friggin money Apple! Get it done! 

People expect mediocrety from Siri now and that’s a major problem that need to get fixed Asap. 

macapfel said:

The price is steep. I was quite keen on replacing my 6. But the price put me off, and I thought I wait for the iPhone X 2, with all the usual refinements, and then might buy one without looking at my account balance for a while – and get a new battery for my 6 while waiting.

I’m in exactly the same boat. IPhone 6, just changed the battery. I was really keen on the iPhone X but the price really is too much for me to swallow. 

I get it, they have expensive components but come on!

Hey, they are a public company and owe it to share holders to extract as much money as they can from consumers but their profit margins are getting pretty hard to accept.

my fiancé just bought an Apple Watch and the plain silicone band is $79 Australia..... I work in 
engineering and know how much injection molded  parts like this cost. Like $0.30 tops in materials plus packaging, tooling, marketing ect. $2 at most, that’s around 4000% profit margin. 

$25-30 would have been OK  but I would have bitch slapped myself if I paid $79. Instead, eBay has plenty for only a few dollars.

No doubt, there is always a market for extortion arely priced products, I’m sure there are people who would pay $4000 but the pool of people where money is no object is surely getting smaller.

Too late for that. 64gb IPhone X...... then straight up to 256gb.

What happened to 128gb? 

My current phone is maxed out at 64gb, I need 128gb. 

Nice try on the upsell, but sorry,? That price is 
just to rich for me now. I’m tapping the mat.

Damn you Apple, I’ll just delete more stuff, make do and skip all your new phones.