minisu1980
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The Smartphone Endgame: Who wins once shipment volumes peak?
It seems you are confusing value “best bang for you buck” for “cheapest item that can accomplish a task”. Your are further convuluting the subject by making the assumption that iPhone is expensive (which is highly subjective). Thus your logic seems to be since iPhone is expensive to you and piece of junk Y can preform the same functions eventually all people will buy junk phone Y like you in order to save money. I guess this line of thinking would be logical if either a) the concept of value did not exist or b) all people can only afford junk phone Y, thus rendering value meaningless. The problem here is the concept of value does exist and almost all people understand it. On the cost side, figuring based on median household income (in the US) greater than 50% if people should be able to afford a phone that cost $1,100. This means that there should always be more people opting to purchase “the best bang for their buck” (value) vs “cheapest thing that can accomplish a task”.saltyzip said:Lets get to the point, Apple can't keep making this ludicrous profit on its iPhones for ever, so what is the trigger point to the start of the inevitable decline?
This article knocks android smartphone manufacturers for making just a couple of billion in profit. That is still bloody good business compared to my annual salary, if you compare it to Apples obscene profit it looks minute, but they aren't the ones being greedy and making stupid profit margins.
Apple is trying desperately to keep punters upgrading their phones each year or two, ensuring newer models are more expensive, plus expanding the ecosystem for lock in. They are introducing finance deals soon so I hear to encourage more people to part with more of their hard earned cash over a an easy payment period. Morally this isn't great but will help keep those premium sales and therefore easy money coming in.
The problem for apple is the best of android and the best of apple are virtually on par with each other.
The core functions of a smartphone which most people use are already nailed. People won't keep paying thousands of dollars for a phone, it's chucking money down the drain.
The same thing happened to PCs, people didn't need more and more power, they were happy with what they had.
I think if you gave the best budget android phone to apple users they'd be surprised how good they actually are, with exception of the camera and iMessage withdrawals.
Yes you can buy expensive cars and expensive house phones, but most people buy what is best bang for buck and that's why android rules on the numbers. Android is in your TVs, it will be in your fridges, in your cars, your scooters, your washing machines, house alarms etc and this is where apple won't be able to compete, due to its closed nature, it relies on others to support its products with a cost to certify them. This is where the number of devices count in the long term, not how much apple stores in its money vault each quarter now, it's how windows became the OS of choice and the PC became the hardware of choice to run it. It's a marathon not a sprint and I think that's where Apples business model which is just really the iphone will come unstuck.
Apples good times will not last, they can't stop the inevitability that the iPhone will cease to be a cash cow for them in the not too distant future.
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FCC net neutrality protections to expire on Apr. 23 without intervention
I see a possible fourth option. Allow these companies to charge whatever they want so they can try and get a fair rate of return on their investment, but in return they have agree to be stripped of their geographical monopoly status. I would wager not a single one of them would take this deal.
Thing is when competition exists, the market will only bear a reasonable price so they are unlikely to get what they would consider a fair rate of return. After all what qualifies as fair, in my industry if I have no competition I can safely say anything less than a billion percent is unfair, however in a market where I have to compete all the sudden 10% doesn’t seem so bad.
I like how the monopoly status is just a thing that should be fixed by someone else at some nebulous time in the future, but hey let’s kill net neutrality now, which is the only real regulation they have since I don’t like the “progressive agenda”. Perhaps, legislation could have been introduced that would have adressed both these issues together since they are intertwined. I would support that regardless of which party put it forth. I would even go so far as to argue with a true free market (no regional monopolies), net neutrality may not even be needed. That of course is not what’s being suggest though, is it? What is being done is leaving a broken system in place and removing the only regulation that has been applied to them in how many years.
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Informal testing finds Apple Maps arrival times are 'intentionally conservative' to provid...
I travel a lot for work and can say Apple maps has improved tremendously over the last few years. The biggest improvement I have noticed is it's ability to figure out the most time efficient path given current traffic conditions. I used to use Google Maps, but now that Apple Map's accuracy has improved it is simply easier to use the built in mapping program. Never tried Waze, so I don't know how it would compare. Realistically, most users will just go with the default mapping program so I'm not so sure it even matters if one is better than the other.
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Fast Company ranks Apple as world's 'Most Innovative' for 2018
Apples efforts on the lower level stuff, while not so headline grabbing as an OLED screen or new form factor, is putting them leaps and bounds ahead of their competitors. SSD custom controller (I forget the exact name), APFS, A-series chips, various continuity features. My new iMac unlocks with my watch, calls and messages come up on screen ... no configuration, no third party software to install or keep updated ... it all just works. In particular the ability for new devices to just be configured automatically with my wireless network and icloud account is extremely posh feeling. I think a few years down the road other tech companies are going to all the sudden realize they are so far behind the curve there will be no real way to level the playing field no matter how many dollars they are willing to burn trying. All this is to say it is nice to see Apple getting it's dues for once, instead of the ever spouted narrative of analysts and the tech media, in general, that Apple isn't innovating and therefore doomed!!!
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Spotify may be preparing HomePod competitor with entrance into hardware market
I agree this will expedite their fall from grace. I bought the HomePod last week, the sound is incredible and Siri hears me every single time. The Siri functionality works for my purposes: pausing music, changing volume, finding volume level, skipping tracks, etc. I'll buy a second one once AirPlay2 allows them to work in tandem. Wish Spotify had already IPO'd, this seems like a good time to short the stock.
