AI_lias

17" MacBook Pro is good news. Not for me, but maybe there's a chance they will now offer an entry-level model with 15" display. I like what they did with the iPad, by offering a low cost entry-level 9.7" (not mini), and no reason why consumers shouldn't have the option of a 15" display. 

I don't get what the big deal is. How attached can one be to unreleased products? If anything it's good and shows that Apple doesn't want to release a sub-par product. Now, if they had done the same with the butterfly keyboards....

fastbagger said:

Guess I am returning my airpods for the ones without charging case.

Maybe you'll be able to charge them from the new iPhone they're releasing in the fall, with wireless power sharing. 

Wow, mentioning the battery replacement discount as a strategy: silly. Consumers practically twisted Apple's arm in doing it, short term (one year, that's not a strategy timeframe). It would have been a consumer-benefitting strategy if Apple, on their own, will have disclosed the iPhone throttling, and reminded the people that you might just have to replace the battery, not buy that new phone. The article seems to focus on quality, which would have been good a couple of years ago, but now you pay more for that quality, and get less value than you used to. So the strategy benefits the investors, since Apple is charging more for the same quality, and in some cases, for less, since they removed some features people liked, and even charged for them: dongles. There are other indirect ways that quality and value went down through Apple's design strategy: what happens when you're out of warranty and a key breaks on your MacBook Pro? Or the back glass of the iPhone cracks? 

simply258 said:

I just compared a Xs Max 512GB $1449 to a Note 9 512GB $1249, Apple’s premium is 16%. For that you get premium material (all glass, stainless steel), superior security, processor, screen among others. Noting that Samsung supply themselves with the display so it costs them less. Why doesn’t Samsung get some of this criticism?

Because Samsung is raising their prices piggybacking on Apple. It still cold comfort to people who don’t care that much for those premium materials at those prices. Some people are on tight budgets. It’s Apple’s prerogative to move upmarket, but not everyone wants BMWs and Mercedeses, even if they could afford them. Then, there’s the perception issue too. If people feel like they get ripped off, even if they’re not, you’ve got a problem. At the end of the day, this is grumbling while some people realize that going forward, if they want the latest Apple tech, they either have to borrow to buy it, or buy used or refurbished, and hold on longer to it. So Apple is just dropping the “affordable” from “affordable luxury”.