robbyx

sog35 said:

Good job Apple.

With the SE there is a great new iPhone for $399.

Now Apple needs to get iOS on phones from $100-$300. To do that they should license iOS light version to selected manufacters.

If Apple plays its cards right it can get 50% market share of the smartphone market.

Apple should charge the greater of $20 or 15% license fee per phone. They could probably sell 600,000,000 licensed phones a year.

600,000,000 x $30 license fee = $18 billion in almost pure profit

I think if Apple is going to go this route, they should just make the phone themselves. Licensing the OS would be a pain and would degrade the iOS experience no matter how hard they tried to prevent that from happening. Android is a mess for precisely this reason.  Too many vendors. Too many components to test.  Wildly different specs from model to model. Etc. I think we've hit peak iPhone, so I don't think you're off base to suggest a cheap "lite" model. But I'd rather see Apple build it. 

bbh said:

It looks like everybody is missing something pretty incredible here. The government wants to essentially trash privacy forever on a one time fishing trip. This is just oo unbalanced to evev rate a discussion of "National Security" (what hogwash...) against personal privacy.

It's worse than that. It's not like Apple has this insecure version of iOS just lying around. The government is essentially trying to force a business to engineer a product that it deems necessary. Apple will need to pay engineers to rework and test the software, however they approach the task.  So now a business must write code the government demands?  The overreach is shocking. 

rogifan_old said:

stevie said:

This is a good move.  iAd was a bungled mess since day one.

It is better to just cut their losses and move on.

Is there anything under Eddy that isn't? An article just came out about merchants not signing on to Pay. Apple took for granted that merchants would just sign on and they haven't. Whole Foods is the only merchant that has Pay in every one of its stores. I love it but I've got maybe 2 or 3 stores where I can use it. And they're all grocery stores.

http://www.pymnts.com/news/2016/apple-pays-merchant-problem/

I honestly cannot understand how Eddy still has a job. Everything he manages is problematic in one way or another. Cloud services are unreliable. App stores are a mess and still don't offer obvious features like upgrade pricing. iAd has been weak since day one. He's utterly incompetent yet Forstall was squeezed out so that every exec could be a technically illiterate marketing wonk. 

nolamacguy said:

robbyx said:

Wrong.  How much of that non-iPhone revenue depends upon the iPhone, directly or not?  How many jobs would be lost?  How many stores would close?  Apple Watch would go poof.  Apple Music and Apple Pay would go poof.  If iPhone were wiped out tomorrow, Apple would be gutted.  When 70% of your revenue comes from one product and an additional chunk comes from services and accessories that depend upon that product, it's a one trick pony.

apple still makes nearly ALL the profit of the PC industry, makes nearly ALL the profit of tablets, and makes GOOD revenue from content media.

contrast that with:

- if google's advertising revenue went poof tomorrow, where would their revenue come from?

- if microsoft's Windows revenue went poof tomorrow, where would their revenue come from?

- if amazon's...oh wait, amazon doesnt have revenue.

....get it yet?

Yeah, I get that you're a fanboy in the extreme sense of the word.  That's about all I get.

If iPhone and related services revenue went away, Apple would dramatically contract in size.  Hundreds of thousands of people around the world would lose jobs.  The spaceship campus would be a ghost ship.  Would Apple disappear?  No.  As you point out, they do have other revenue streams that are independent of the iPhone, but do you really think those would remain as healthy as they are today?  If the iPhone vanished, do you really think iPad sales would thrive?  Mac sales?  No.  Everything would suffer and Apple would be hollowed out.  Only the most diehard fanboy would suggest otherwise.

Same for Google.  Same for Microsoft.  Same for any other company that were to suddenly lose the lion's share of its revenue and its hallmark/signature product.

D'uh.

nolamacguy said:

cnocbui said:

As has already been pointed out to you, Apple's income is a one-trick-iPony. 

what nonsense. apple's non-iPhone income is greater than most of the other tech players. even if iPhone were wiped out tomorrow apple's income would be fantastic. door

Wrong.  How much of that non-iPhone revenue depends upon the iPhone, directly or not?  How many jobs would be lost?  How many stores would close?  Apple Watch would go poof.  Apple Music and Apple Pay would go poof.  If iPhone were wiped out tomorrow, Apple would be gutted.  When 70% of your revenue comes from one product and an additional chunk comes from services and accessories that depend upon that product, it's a one trick pony.