rogifan_old

birko said:

81% - I would have thought that rather low retention rate in the retail market. I haven't worked in retail for over 12 years, but back then, we never had more than 5% staff loss in any given year - 18000+ employees (not counting those who reached retirement age). 

According to this Bloomberg story, retail turnover is about 5% a month. My mother works at Kohls (yes I know you can't really compare it to an Apple Store) and people are leaving all the time. They have a hard time getting good people in and most of the people they do get in quit or just don't show up for work. So I would say 81% is pretty good.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-06/why-retailers-are-suddenly-desperate-to-keep-their-least-valuable-workers

ireland said:

Angela is great. One cannot deny this. I have a lot of respect for her.

Next up, respect the customer: €114 to cover an iPad mini 4 front and back is an insult. Put more than 16 GB in base devices. I'd say something if the devices were cheap—they are not. Provide the value you claim is in them. 32 GB base devices at a minimum. Don't cripple base iMacs. Don't cripple Fusion Drives. Fix graphical firmware issues across your devices. My 5K iMac should be able to start without the Apple logo flickering once during progress bar. Bring back software quality and quit adding so many features. Fix the ongoing buginess with the third party iOS keyboards implementation. Magic Trackpad 2 = €149? 32 GB Apple TV = €179? New Apple TV remote here doesn't include Siri and costs €89? WTF.

What does this have to do with Angela Ahrendts? She doesn't make the products or determine their prices she just sells them.

My Twitter feed is full of people in a panic with all these things Apple needs to or should have done so Wall Street wouldn't view them as a "hardware company". Just because Wall Street loves Google and Facebook right now doesn't mean Apple needs to become Google or Facebook or that they failed because they didn't try to become Google or Facebook 5 years ago. 

This whole pivot to services is a bit baffling to me (even though yes I agree monetizing the install base is important). It seems like panic; Wall Street doesn't like hardware companies so Apple needs to stop being one. If this is all about predictability then people should push for Apple to become a 'devices as a service' company with services like Apple Music or streaming TV on top of that. Take the iPhone upgrade program and apply it to all of Apple's products. Trying to turn Apple into something it's not (an advertising or media company) is nonsense.

nolamacguy said:

rogifan_old said:

Facebook is up 12% after hours. Why? Yes they reported good numbers but more importantly they have a good story to tell and they tell it well. What is Apple's story? All we got on the conference call was FX, FX and more FX. Oh and a pretty useless slide about "services" which at this point are mostly App Store and iTunes downloads. Until Apple finds its story and tells it in a compelling way I think the stock is stuck in the mud.

what's the good FB story? they sell users to advertisers, that's it. 

Apple is not in the advertising business so that means advertising is evil. I get it.

thompr said:

rogifan_old said:

Facebook is up 12% after hours. Why? Yes they reported good numbers but more importantly they have a good story to tell and they tell it well. What is Apple's story? All we got on the conference call was FX, FX and more FX. Oh and a pretty useless slide about "services" which at this point are mostly App Store and iTunes downloads. Until Apple finds its story and tells it in a compelling way I think the stock is stuck in the mud.

Easy to sell a story when your future growth prospects are potentially bright.  Not so easy when you have already set unprecedented records for performance and have nowhere to go but down.  (Not in my eyes, that is, but in the eyes of many.)

So there is no "story to tell" for Apple other than by the numbers.  And yes, the stock will probably be a slow gainer over the coming years, not a juicy growth story as in years past.  There is both Tim could say that would change the perception, because the perception is halfway right.

Still I think Apple's message seems muddied. This morning on CNBC you has hosts scratching their heads saying oh Apple's a services company now? But no not really because they don't sell software as a service (Microsoft) and they're not into advertising (Facebook/Google). That seems to me like Apple is sticking narratives against the wall to see what will stick. Seems like a panic to get people to stop thinking of Apple as a "hardware company".