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sog35 said:

Apple needs to rely less on China for revenue.

How? Services. Period.

Facebook and Google only do advertising and they are worth $800 billion combined.

Tim Cook has to get of his high horse on privacy and start building an Apple advertising empire.

Tim Cook always spews about how important privacy is.
But Apple users don't give a crap.

86% of iOS users use Facebook.
http://www.tomsguide.com/us/Facebook-iOS-Android-Google-Apple,news-16588.html

80% of Google's mobile revenue is from iOS users
http://appleinsider.com/articles/12/03/29/google_earns_80_of_its_mobile_revenue_from_ios_just_20_from_android

85% of iOS users use at least one Google service.



All this means that iOS users don't give a crap about privacy. That is why Apple needs to build their advertising empire.  

With advertising Apple would not need to rely on a communist state.

Rbfwcyek1 said:

Long time reader, but never posted until now. Frankly, I don't care whether Apple made tens or hundreds of billions of profit. What I care about are the products that I need to use in my life each day. And I've had growing frustration for a while now that despite the "who cares how many" billions they are constantly raking in, they seem to be having competitors across the board catching up, and at times overtaking. I used to have absolute confidence that just buying the Apple version of whatever the product was gave me an acceptable balance of value and utility and it saved a lot of time because I didn't really need to worry about everything else on the market.

I love that over previous years I could always rely on Apple and have a set level of confidence and expectation for any of their products I bought. But in recent years I've started questioning the value proposition which really annoys me that I have to do that. 

For example, I am wanting to upgrade my work computer and have the budget for a Mac Pro but would even settle for an iMac with decent gpu performance but from what I've read the latest ones seem to be a bit underpowered still. But why would I spend the same amount of money I could buy a brand new small car with on tech that is years old now (i.e. Mac Pro). I considered upgrading my MacBook Pro instead and getting a new monitor because after having retina screens everywhere else the Thunderbolt display I've got looks pretty ordinary. Although I paid AUD$999 for it a number of years ago, the exact same display is the only option from Apple still (and considerably outdated) but is now $1599 here in Australia. But at least it has free shipping I suppose  You know what - if Apple want to keep selling old technology then at least reduce the price to compensate and retain some semblance of value.

So now instead of just hitting buy on the Apple website I've considered a Windows PC highly spec'd to be similar as the Mac Pro but frustratingly I just don't even want to head down that path. However I fear that if Apple keeps going down their current path at some point it's going to force my hand. All my devices are Apple at this point and for my family members as well and anyone else I could convince in the past. If it comes to it then once I leave the eco-system I suspect it will be quick and thorough. Just don't want to get to that point though, and really hope Apple have something worth buying for my day job upgrade before our fin year ends June 30th. And I no longer recommend Apple anymore - I used to unhesitatingly. Now it's "look, I have chosen to use this, but I'm not suggesting anything - go do your own research because you are going to have to find what represents good value to you and for many Apple doesn't". Surely I'm not the only one in this boat. And surely that represents a long term problem for Apple. I've found the value of an Apple product is really evident when you own all the other Apple products and having them work as well as can be expected together. But just as the halo effect has grabbed new customers in the past, when it starts hitting in more numbers then the reverse is going to be true as well - people won't just leave one device - they will start questioning all of their devices and probably pretty quickly end up with few to no Apple devices at all. That to me would be more worrying if I was a shareholder than the quarterly fluctuations. 

sflocal said:

Apple sells more watches in a year, than the entire wearables industry (like FitBit) did since existence, and this wad is saying that Apple is doing it wrong?

I know FitBit's CEO has to say that in order for his company to (barely) remain relevant.  I just wonder if he knows he's on borrowed time.

It's not what the AppleWatch is doing now that makes him stay up at night, it's what it's capable of doing down the road, especially when the extended capabilities of that wristband port come into play.  Companies, especially the medical industry, are already cranking away on it and when that comes online, one can pretty much kiss companies like FitBit goodbye.

Keep that poker face up FitBit.  We all know you're bluffing.