JP234

I worked for an Apple Authorized Sales/Service/Training VAR (there used to be hundreds of Apple Specialist stores). Apple started squeezing channel sales the day they opened the first Apple Store. Margins on Macs shrank from 10% across the board to 7% on consumer devices, and 10% on Pro. Then the MacBook Pro margin shrank to 7%, leaving only the outdated Mac Pro at 10%. Margin on iPhones, iPods, and iPads shrank to 4%. When a customer paid by credit card (virtually ALL our sales) the card co. charged us 3.5% transaction fee. We subsisted for a while on repairs, upgrades and training. Then Apple started soldering memory on the logic boards, and using proprietary SSD storage cards, which killed our upgrade business. Then Apple started to charge us the same price for battery, logic board & display replacement that they charged endusers who could just send their prepaid devices to Apple for service. After that, training started to move inhouse to Apple, and that was it for us, in 2013.

This is why you no longer see Apple Specialists anymore. And I'm not complaining. Like so many others, I went to work directly for Apple (until retirement), and found out just how much better Apple is at what they do than my old employer was. I mistakenly thought we were the best and brightest. And I hold no grudge against Apple. Profit wasn't the sole, or even the most important goal. That would be providing a consistent and positive user experience when buying and using Apple products. That is best facilitated at the Apple Stores or online store. I'm still an Apple shareholder and user, and both have been VERY positive for me. It's the greatest company in the world, and makes the greatest tech products in the world, bar none.

Isn't Timothee Chalamet busy with his "Dune" series on HBO Max? Or the inevitable "Bones and All" cannibalism rom-com? Apple TV+ should make choices based on what viewers want to see, not what actors want. And so far, they're doing a great job. Much better quality vs. quantity ratio than anyone else in the streaming milieu. If he's a fit for a future concept, fine, but I didn't like him in Dune. And there's no way I'm going to watch a romance between cannibals. Gotta draw the line somewhere, and that's it. If I'm going to watch a show about cannibals, I want them to be Maoris or zombies, not millenials (zombie cannibal millennials, sure. They're mostly iPhone zombies anyway).

I still have 2 vintage iPhones sitting in a drawer. Soon to be 3 if I can't figure out what to do with them. No one wants them because I keep them too long.

Finally! I was waiting for $100 off the M1 Mini when the M2 was announced. But now, I just ordered the M2 for $599.

Can't believe Apple dropped the price!

davidlewis54 said:

Sadly, little, if anything, has taken place in the US to improve the lives of non-white people.  There have been the American Civil War, the 1960s MLK era, riots across the Country across the decades but no change.  It is the same with guns: every time there is a mass shooting there are demands for change and nothing happens. The US a democracy? No. Make America Great Again? It never has been and never will be. 

I guess if you don't consider emancipation from slavery a "little" thing, or the end of institutional segregation, or the voting rights act, or the Fair Housing Act, or the birth of the United Farm Workers union. The lives of people of color in this country are infinitely better than they were during the era of the "greatest generation," We "selfish, materialistic Baby Boomers" did that, along with improving the lives of the LGBTQ community and Americans with disabilities.

Of course there is work to be done. Sure, 2017-2021 was a terrible setback for those communities, for Asian Americans most of all. But instead of throwing up your hands in anger and despair, stop whining, get off you couch and DO SOMETHING productive if you don't like what you see!