LoneStar88

All quibbling aside, we're a few days into our 7-day free trial, and we're very much enjoying "The Morning Show" and "See".

These are really quality productions: great casting, intriguing story lines, beautiful camera work, effects, and editing.

And today we have a new episode of each to watch tonight.

If Apple can maintain this quality in general, Apple TV+ has a good chance of being yet another success for them.

This gives me a good reason to get an iPad again. I had a Mini years ago, but let it go because I rarely used it.

But now real Photoshop on the iPad is going to be great—with Apple Pencil.

I wanted to try a graphics tablet years ago back in the Wacom and Cintiq days, but knew I wouldn't use either enough to justify the cost. But now with an iPad and its modern speed and huge catalog of apps, there's definitely an iPad in my future!

sirozha said:

Who will be paying for it? If Apple sells a $800 phone and gets paid 1/24 of the total price per month, they won’t bag the entire price until after 2 years. This will take more than two years to ramp up until Apple starts collecting the same amount per month as they would if they sold the iPhone outright. 

I don’t know if this can be considered a sign of strength. From the automotive perspective, when a company does 0% financing, its usually a sign of weakness via-a-vis consumer demand for the cars. When there’s strong demand, automotive manufacturers usually don’t offer 0% interest deals. 

Apple is basically lending money to their customers for free, which is not something that any manufacturer would ever do unless they are expecting sagging demand for their product. The 0% financing is a way to stimulate demand. Apple pays to manufacture the iPhone upfront, but doesn’t get to recoup its costs for over a year and doesn’t make all the profit until after two years. 

The more I think of that, the more I see this as a desperate measure to prop up sales. This is also a way to push the premium product downmarket to the people who would not normally consider expensive toys like these and try to squeeze the profits out of them using this zero interest rate trick. 

Why wouldn’t most people take advantage of this deal? Even if I have a grand or more to blow on a new Apple iPhone, why would I not instead pay Apple a little per month? I don’t get any benefit for paying for the iPhone outright anymore. I won’t get punished for financing the phone. 

But what happens if people take this deal in masses? This could result in a huge hit to the bottom line in the first two years. 

So much hand wringing over MONEY MONEY MONEY!!

The message I get from this program is that Apple is thinking different with respect to enabling and encouraging more new and more existing customers to experience its new products—sooner than later.

The Apple user experience has been the most important factor for me over the last three decades, or so, in keeping me a loyal customer. It also accounts, I think, for the consistently high numbers of switchers to Apple.

I personally love the entire current Apple ecosystem of products and services!

I’ll be 70 in February, and I use Apple Pay whenever possible via my Apple Watch.

I buy gas almost exclusively at Wawa stations, as they have compatible contactless sensors on their pumps.

I access Chase bank ATMs' locked doors and terminals with Apple Pay.

I use Apple Pay at Whole Foods stores.

There are more and more compatible POS systems around which work well with Apple Pay.

I’m sold on the system for its convenience and superior security.

As with most "excuses", age should not keep people from benefiting from technology.

zoetmb said:

I've never understood why anyone would do this.  What's the difference if you buy a new phone on the day it's released, a day later, a week later or a month (or more) later?   And I've never understood how there are people who can both afford the phone and waste so much time.   But I will give them some credit for having the patience to stand on line.   If a line is more than 10-15 minutes for anything, I'm out of there.   

It's not a waste of time to take part in a unique opportunity to socialize with like-minded people. It's kind of like queueing for tickets to a rock concert. You know others are there for the same reason, and you have common ground with them. A few years ago, I queued up for an iPhone 6 around 7pm the night before at my Apple Store in Tampa, Florida. We were sitting in line in chairs and having pleasant conversations practically all night. One nearby person sprung for a half-dozen pizzas and shared them with some of us. It was fun. We just stayed up all night outside the shopping mall. Come morning, and a couple hours before the store opened, some store staff came out and distributed bottles of water. And then they started taking payments via their hand held devices for phones they had in stock. Once they opened the doors, we then simply waited in more line to pick up our phones.