discountopinion

I upgrade iPhone every year and this year it felt somewhat different than others. IDK why but it felt less incremental and more of a solid upgrade given the step changes in silicon capabilities and also usb-c port. The USB-C port simplifies several use cases for me and also reduces the number of cables when I travel.

Judging from my few visits to the Apple stores then iPhone 15 Pro Max is a barn storming success with many people opting for the top of the range model.

Now if only Apple did software as well as they do hardware.

tht said:

Seems crazy?

Is it really a strategic technology for computers? For cars, most certainly at this point in the EV adoption curve, but computers? Isn't a battery like the 3rd or 4th, or higher, most expensive part of mobile computer?

Display, SoC, cellular modem, then the battery?

Does not seem crazy to me at all for Apple to actively pursue this field with great interest and investment.

Why? Future Products and current small devices portfolio.

Vision Pro needs a separate battery via cable at the moment. This is clearly not what they want. Higher capacity, lower weight and fast charging seem core to the pain point at the moment to remove the need to tether a power pack. Remove it and lower the overall weight of the device is critical after the early adopter stage.

AirPods. Can't do a long haul flight on one charge. Would be greatly improved with longer battery life. Longer battery life will also unlock further assisted hearing and med tech use cases. Mission critical to get this done in the medium term to unlock further growth.

Apple Watch - can always use more battery life and may unlock new use cases for on device compute boosts in particular the neural engine for more advanced onboard Siri.

Nvidia will make oodles of cash as everyone is playing catch up on AI. It is a war of attrition in terms of capex. $5B costs that likely will increase dramatically year on year for an unknown period of time.

Now Apple just happens to sit on one of the world’s best silicon teams. Apple may want to do a Tesla like Dojo sprint and roll their own server side AI silicon or even license/partner with Tesla on it.

If they can pull this off then it feels like the sustainable move. Nvidia needs a strong counter weight.

From my side truth and perception are sometimes hard to disentangle. Apple not having visible generative AI products and a really poor quality assistant Siri that has fallen behind the times makes perception of falling behind the truth. Apple will likely have issues in attracting AI talent that is gravitating towards Google, Microsoft, Meta, Tesla etc.

They can have all the innovation in the world behind closed doors but silence is increasingly equaling falling behind in a market that is extremely open source and open discourse about their innovations.

In my view it is a huge miss at Apple to be so behind in shipping strong AI features in their products and OS. Some executives should really be replaced as they have become complacent with a string of years of high profits and margins. Craig should have ridden the AI wave but dropped the ball. They are getting the old bank disease. 

As an Apple fanboi, I find it hugely disappointing that Apple is not ground zero for some of the seismic shifts in the industry on this topic. Acquiring Siri a decade so ago was a great move and then they completely let it die on the vine. 

Right now it seems like the elite at Apple can be found in the chip department and the rest are muddling through bailed out by industry leading silicon.

Multimodal models are now busy blowing the barn doors off what is possible and Apple is busy polishing the edges of the as-is.

Would be super if Apple Card could expand geographically at pace already in addition to broader Apple Pay accelerating geographic reach.

Feels like a slam dunk to also disintermediate local finance partners that serve the iPhone subscription programs. Using these companies today is sand in the suncream for the overall renewal process.

Also use Apple Card and Apple Pay Later to transition more Apple devices into subscription offerings. Personally i would love to have iPad Pro and Watch on such plans.

Especially in the Eurozone countries there are opportunities for passporting services cross border with minimal friction and many embedded finance services offerings. Likely Apple has full insight into this and will hopefully pounce.

So Apple please insert coin(s) to continue and level up.