gmgravytrain

Unfortunately, Apple loses again. Most consumers in the world are willing to settle for a $200 cheaper Android smartphone which has less security than an iPhone. Nothing is going to change that. Apple will continue to sell fewer iPhones while increasing prices each and every year. Fewer people will ever get to try the more secure Face ID, especially while the sensors are housed in the infamous (hated) display notch because they don't want to pay the high cost of an iPhone. Apple keeps going down the least favored path by consumers. Apparently, Apple isn't able to sell enough iPhones to satisfy anyone and everyone says iPhones are too expensive. This is a lose-lose situation even if iPhones are more secure using Face ID. Apple put a lot of work and effort into Face ID and yet people hate it. That's just human nature, I suppose.

High Android smartphone sales combined with their overall market share percentage are absolutely crushing Apple into a poorly valued mess of a company. Why? Because consumers aren't buying enough iPhones for various reasons. Face ID (or any security feature) is so low on consumers' minds it simply doesn't even matter. This facial recognition test being won by Apple isn't going to boost iPhone sales. A cheaper Android smartphone with weaker security will easily win in unit sales. Lower cost always beats higher security when it comes to selling to consumers. I can only hope Apple realizes this before the company value drops to half the value it was a couple of months ago.

tht said:

Disagree with this. A consumer Mac for budget seekers is something like a $600 to $700 laptop. The market for desktops is pretty small, and is basically nonexistent in education now? How Apple would get to a $700 laptop is a very good question, and for a lot of people what will be in it will be unacceptable. 

It would be nice if there was a $500 Mac mini, but there just aren’t that many buyers for something like this anymore. Just don’t see it if most of the market is buying laptops and tablets. Look at the Surface Go. Any takers if that hardware was inside a $500 box? An Apple TV with macOS/ARM on it for $400? Is the lack of near term compatible software going to kill it? And would buy it?

For education, I think iPad + Pencil + Services is Apple’s best option for students, and the most benefit for students. Apple really needs to shore up its educational services and iPad + Pencil software, but the triad of iPad + Pencil + Services is the way to go. They need to develop an attractive package for schools. Whether they want to do it, who knows.

A lot of the computer or web based homework I see for my junior high schooler has a real good chance of making students dumber, not smarter. I mean I’m near steaming mad about it. What a waste of time.

Apple doesn't seem hungry enough to compete with other companies going after educational sales.  Apple is always going to set the highest price point and believes schools are going to choose them for quality or ecosystem.  Apple needs to create some loss leader product to crush the competition.  I think that's the only way Apple can get some momentum going when it comes to selling products to schools.  Whether it's worth it for Apple to do something like that, I wouldn't know.  Apple is all about revenues and profits and little else.  Schools have limited budgets and are probably always going for the least expensive offering.  Apple isn't about to work out some special pricing deal.  It's either Apple's way or the highway.  The Chromebooks are always going to win and Apple is always going to lose when fighting for school contracts.

christopher126 said:

Copying and a 'good enough' approach to business will only get you so far!

It shows the extraordinary effort Apple puts into every facet of the iPhone. From glass, software, chips, battery, cameras, antennas, etc., etc. 

And, the syncing of everything across all my devices. 

I will never have a Google, MS, Samsung, Amazon, or Facebook device in my home or service on my devices!

I can't wait until Apple makes all my devices look "Anonymous" on the internet! 

It's coming!

You're in such a tiny minority, like one in a million.  The whole internet is Google's playground and Android OS overwhelmingly dominates.  Almost no one on the planet is concerned with personal privacy because almost everyone wants free services.  Paying for those free services with personal data is completely acceptable to billions of internet users.  Everyone believes Apple is missing out by not having eavesdropping/listening devices in every room.  I believe most consumers don't mind being spied upon.  It makes them feel important that someone is listening to their every word.

High benchmarks are nice but I believe most consumers are more concerned with what the total package brings them.  Most people I know have no interest in benchmarks and certainly they don't choose their smartphones based on benchmarks.  Most of their choices seem to be based on some sort of price/feature selection.  Many are happy with products that are just 'good enough' for their needs.

No matter how fast the A12 Bionic is, very few consumers in India will never get their hands on one.  Same goes for Brazil or Russia.  The smartphone that's going to win in those countries is the one most consumers can afford to purchase.

Although the A12 Bionic is a monster SoC, when flagship smartphones are tested next to one another, they're usually within milliseconds of each other when performing routine app launch tests.  Seriously, most consumers are not going to pay a couple of hundred dollars more for a gain or loss in milliseconds.  Apple's OS animations are very fluid but many times some Android smartphone can launch an app slightly quicker.  Apple just needs to keep making the whole iOS platform and ecosystem better and that will make the biggest difference in what smartphone consumers will purchase.  I'll always prefer an overall balanced package but that's just me.  As long as Apple doesn't keep pricing the iPhone much higher, Apple will do quite well selling a nicely balanced iPhone product.

hentaiboy said:

So why doesn’t Apple use these in its notebooks and end the reliance on Intel?

I think Apple should stay on good terms with Intel and keep some high-end computers using Intel processors.  I'm still not satisfied with AMDs power-sucking processors even if they are quite strong at benchmarks.  Apple's stupidly thin computer cases badly need cool-running processors.

It sound like a bunch of malarkey to me. I can't see any of Apple's A-series SoCs matching an Intel i9 processor in high-end processing. Sure, maybe the A-series can compete against Intel i3s and i5s but that's about as far as it goes. I wish Apple all the luck in the world. It will need it. There's no way Wall Street is going to give a higher valuation to Apple due to competing with Intel's desktop offerings.

Apparently, Apple isn't interested in building powerhouse desktops and will likely settle for some meager-performing laptops or desktops they can make higher profit margins from. Just barely powerful enough for the average computer user. I think I know how Apple thinks and I'm sure Apple doesn't like to directly compete against any other manufacturer on a head-to-head basis. We'll see no brute force computers from Apple if they're switching over to A-series SoCs. Although I know it's not practical, I really get peeved when I see Intel/Windows system benchmarks up there in the stratosphere and Apple has absolutely nothing worthwhile to compare. I get it, I really do. It's just not Apple's way. Dell sells Alienware laptops that are bad-ass devices for gaming. There's no good financial reason for Apple to sell stuff like that.

If Apple does decide to go ARM with its computers, I just hope they are somewhat respectable because I absolutely hate the way reviewers are always criticizing Apple products due to their mediocre performance and high cost. Apple's future ARM solution better be really spectacular at something other than high profit margins. I'm just hoping Apple has some mystery SoC that can match a mid-range quad-core or hexacore Intel i7 but that doesn't seem very likely. Apple can do whatever it wants and doesn't need my approval. I just hope Apple really makes the right choice to keep the company up there above other tech companies.