gmgravytrain

http://www.zdnet.com/article/india-turns-down-apples-request-to-sell-refurbished-iphones-in-the-country/

It's funny how the Indian government turned up it's nose to refurbished Apple iPhones. Well, I suppose the Indian government had a fairly good reason. Both Apple and Indian consumers could have really benefited from those less expensive iPhones. Refurbished iPhones are perfectly fine. Of course, there are a lot of people in the smartphone industry who do believe that new mid-range Android smartphones are much better than older high-end iPhones. I'm not sure why, but it might be due to a features issue. Newer always means better or something like that. Maybe it has to do with newer Android smartphones having a larger display than older iPhones.

Anyway, not everyone needs a larger display or all the latest features. I still don't think refurbished iPhones are going to do anything to stop Android smartphone market share percentage from growing even larger, but at least those older iPhones won't be going to waste in some landfill before they become completely useless. I'm sure Wall Street hates the idea that Apple can't sell more new iPhones because older iPhones "last for too long a time." High sales of new products are OK but Earth's resources are limited and if a consumer can get a longer bang for the buck, that's good for consumers and Earth's resources. All Wall Street wants is companies banging out new products every year with a limited lifespan to keep that resource wasting cycle going continuously.

lkrupp said:

We laud surveys that put Apple in a good light and castigate surveys that put Apple in a bad light. The fanboy/troll wars continue unabated. Personally, after the 2016 elections, I don’t trust any survey on anything. Call me a cynic but surveys like this one, from a single company, have a seedy smell to them. To me this stuff is like using Goggle hits to “prove” a point. 2,325,456 Google hits on an issue don’t prove anything if you get the point. Like another article today showing Apple dropping to 29th in the annual Harris poll of brand reputation, it was preceded by an article declaring millennials overwhelmingly prefer Apple in brand attachment. WTF? 

In the end all I can go on is my personal history with Apple since 1982. In all that time I’ve had to have service performed on my Apple products only a couple of times. First was a bad power supply in my original Power Macintosh 8100 in 1994. Move forward almost 25 years and I recently had the head hinge fail on my iMac 14,2 (2013). The iMac was long out of warranty but the hinge was replaced no charge.

Wall Street will turn high Apple computer reliability into a negative point. I'm sure there isn't a driving need for anyone to replace a reliable computer so they'll hold onto it much longer than a computer that isn't reliable. Wall Street will see this as a hindrance based on longer upgrade schedules and therefore a lower frequency of sales. Companies don't seem to get any praise for building longer-lasting products. Only frequent high sales seem to matter. I guess that's just how things are. As a consumer, I want a longer lasting product and that's one reason I like Macs. I honestly don't see that as a drawback as I'm not looking to constantly replace products I buy. The way Wall Street curses Apple for stagnating iPad sales is rather ridiculous. No smart consumer is going to constantly replace a product that works well and is built like a brick.

Amazon continues to play to win while Apple plays it conservatively so as to not lose. It's hard to tell what Apple is getting out of high R&D spending apart from whatever new stuff is going into the iPhone. I suppose that's where Apple needs to stay focused on but I still think there should be something left over for its other products. Even as an Apple shareholder, I don't care very much about polls, but Amazon seems to be taking away a lot of mindset from Apple. Amazon wins hands down for financial performance, and vision and leadership but I'm not so sure about those other things. I've been using Amazon Prime membership for years and I'd have to rate my experience as excellent. Amazon is definitely doing things right. I still expect more from Apple because of its abundant wealth, but maybe Apple is gaining wealth because it's ignoring other things it should be doing. Whatever. I'm still satisfied with Apple as a company overall. It's just no Amazon.

Apple will be continue to be compared as a weak contender against Spotify until Apple somehow manages to catch up with Spotify in subscribers. I honestly don't think that's possible. The lure of getting those ad-supported subscribers is really quite tempting to people wanting to use a streaming service. Spotify has such a large headstart and runs on practically every device around. I think Spotify deserves to be at the top for those reasons.

I'd like to see Intel snatch up Broadcom. It would be rather interesting for Intel to snatch up Broadcom this year and then snatch up Qualcomm next year.