chasm

Dave Kap said:

Apple Insider is turning into forbes.. 

How do you know that workers are “rattled” ?

You should probably try reading the article more closely, it will improve your comprehension. AI didn't say the workers were rattled -- it was in quotes, indicating that that specific description comes from the WSJ report.

I can remember when the WSJ did a decent job covering tech, but this last couple of years Murdoch Syndrome has set in, and now it just fabricates tech stories based on the misinterpretation of rumours.

elijahg said:

Looks like Tim has finally, directly admitted in a sentence full of many words but that says just one thing: iPhones are too expensive.

No he's not -- at least, not in the way you infer.

He's saying that iPhones jumped up too much in price due to foreign currency changes in developing countries (China and India primarily). Sales of the "too expensive" iPhones are actually up in all developed regions, so POOF goes your half-baked theory.

I think Cook is being very wise to compensate for the currency differential in the short-term to bring prices in line with standard pricing, but it's not really a discount as you imply.

I would suggest to you that premium smartphone prices (let's not forget iPhone is not the only expensive smartphone out there) are going to stay "high" and may in fact get higher (foldable RAZR, anyone?) -- but that this will be offset for consumers by a move (supported by Apple, at least) to hang on to your phone for longer. I'm already seeing this becoming the norm -- anecdotally most iPhones I see are either very <1 year old, or 3+ years old.

As near as I can make out -- with some hints from helpful little birds -- this is what I believe happened:

1. Apple execs were shown the innovative prototype, loved it, put it into production.
2. Engineers discovered a serious issue (overheating) in quality testing.
3. I believe the engineers resolved the issue only a few months later, but this involved some further innovation and changes in the design.
4. New extremely thorough testing, new patents filed, new manufacturing process, wait for patents to be approved, et cetera = quite a long time.

And thus here we are. While the silence was annoying, Apple never cancelled the product. I'd much rather they resolve the problem before sales commenced than do what most other companies would do -- sell the product knowing there could be an issue, and then do a recall after a few houses burnt down/people were injured.

I'm hopeful this report is accurate and that in a few weeks Apple will make an announcement.

It’s worth noting for important context to this story that Larry Kudlow has a VERY LONG track record of being wrong about everything he ever comments on.

A rather worrying trait for the guy in charge of the economy, but his history of making unsubstantiated and false claims means that neither the Chinese nor you, dear reader, should pay any attention to anything he says.

entropys said:

What I don’t understand is why Apple can’t keep the latest processor each year. It isn’t as though it drops the price on out of date imacs.  
Why not update whenever Intel releases a new CPU? The extra R&D would be minimal, and people wouldn’t feel like they are being ripped off if the only choice of iMac has previous gen hardware. It just annoys people.

This is a total fallacy based on a sample size of one: yourself.

Take it from someone who used to work in both Apple and non-Apple retail: the number of people who have any understanding whatsoever of what is inside their machine or what “gen” it is (or its name ... or what it does) is nearly exactly the same as the number of people who can identify, name, and replace all the parts in their car.

Power nerds who actually know specs are a *very* slim portion (well under five percent, closer to two percent IME) of even the PC world, and even less so among Apple buyers. What they actually want is a machine that they perceive (rightly or wrongly) will perform adequately well for their needs, full stop. Apple stuff does that, is well-supported for years, and doesn’t require you to buy a new machine every time Intel finally squeezes out an actual new chip. Consumers like that — the vast majority of PC users would happily go back to Windows 95 or XP if they could, limitations and security nightmares be damned.

Pop out of your bubble for a while and go hang out at a mainstream computer retailer or Apple Store for a long weekend. Eavesdrop on the questions people actually as while shopping for new machines. I’ve done that, I’ve worked those stores, and I still eavesdrop when I’m shopping in such places to help keep my mind open to what is important to the mainstream of Apple, Windows, and Android buyers.

Literally yesterday, I watched a woman (who told the clerk she almost exclusively works in Office and Google apps, and puts everything either on an external hard drive or Google Drive) buy an outdated and underpowered dual i5-based refurb Asus machine with very little RAM or storage (4GB, 64G SSD) primarily because a) it will perform just fine for the next few years given her needs and b) she liked the colour of the case (a nice cobalt blue).

You and I and everyone else reading this is likely cringing, but even though she literally could have saved $150 by buying a basic IPad and a BT keyboard, I can’t argue that — based on what she said she does — she picked all that poorly. I see people buy Android tablets all the time even though they ship with Lollipop (that’s four major versions back), will never receive any major updates, and will — guaranteed — be obsolete and in a drawer in two years. But it’s $200 versus a $330 basic iPad that will still be running the latest iOS and apps for the next four to five years.

People, by and large, do not understand value versus cost until they either become quite wise or quite old, and they are terrified of change, IME. Those of us who happen to have a talent or the time for acquiring expertise in computers generally reap the reward of getting the best deal and best machine (for their budget and chosen platform) nearly all the time, but what posters here seem to not understand is that we are a very tiny cult, like expert birdwatchers or skilled craftsmen — we’re nothing like the vast majority of people who buy technology.