kellie

I say apple could easily build the Mac Mini in the US with robotics doing the majority of the work.  This would avoid tariffs.  Trump is trying to rebuild manufacturing in the US.  The Mac Mini would be an easy place for Apple to start manufacturing products in the US.  

Apple has always excelled at and focused on hardware design.  Soft has always come second to hardware.  Look at most of the annual product announcements, starting with the Steve Jobs product reveals.  There’s always been a focus on the artistry of the design.  Cue Jonny I’ve.  Look at the adjectives that have been used over the years - thinnest, lightest, colorful, minimalist, etc.  Frequently the design focus even overran functionality.  A one button mouse, minimal ports and buttons, etc.  The software always played second fiddle to the physical design.  Look at Siri, an interesting first to market capability, but one that has had problems for years and whose shortcomings have not been significantly addressed.  Apple leadership has been too focused n living in and protecting their walled garden which has had significant revenue and profitability benefits.  But AI is a totally externally driven force.  And Apple has been too busy being proprietary and protective of their platforms.  Now that these massive, industry shifting AI forces are accelerating dramatically, Apple is stuck.  Things they should have been paying attention to years ago, were ignored or minimized.  Catching up is a bear.  Even if they acquired an AI platform, integrating it into the Apple ecosystem will take years.  So it’s a combination of culture, focus, leadership, proprietary systems, software capability and externalities that have put Apple in a very difficult spot. It’s gotten to the point where excellence in hardware design is not going to be the main driver of sales.  Software design, functionality and capability are going to be the factors consumers focus on before making a purchasing decision.  This period of time could very well turn out to be a major business school case study a few years down the road. 

hmurchison said:

30 years ago people took the the streets in states across the US to protest the move towards globalization with protests agains NAFTA  and WTO and now the predictable results are here and the US politicians most who were adults back in the mid 90s themselves are telling the citizens they should pay more for what their mistake.   There is no accountability for what was an obvious bad move.  Citizens did not cause the trade imbalance in fact it cost us in lost jobs. 

Bush started NAFTA, but Clinton signed it into law.  Obama worked the the Trans Pacific Partnership, so he was no fan of keeping manufacturing jobs in the US.  Did these politicians really believe in these programs? Or were they after big political donations?  Biden did nothing for the average American worker. As I see it Trump is the only politician who’s given a darn about the American worker. 

Apple has always primarily been a hardware/device company.  Its software capabilities have always been secondary to its hardware capabilities.  Siri is a classic example of their inability to architect truly exceptional software.  AI is a similar shortcoming.  They are rarely market leaders with application software.  They do ok with operating systems, but their product announcements are typically focused on hardware, less so the software. 

Apple has historically been a device company first and a software company second.  AI is all about software an area is not as competent in as hardware.  For decades Apple product announcements have emphasized the physical aspects of their devices - color, thinness, weight, colors, screen sizes, etc.  on an OS level they’ve done OK.  But Apple has always emphasized selling the hardware because the hardware is what gets people locked into their ecosystem. They have never produced stellar applications.  They frequently copy features from independent software developers.  AI is all about software leadership. Apple doesn’t know how to do that.  Even their hardware frequently lags other competitors, especially in the phone segment.  I’ve complained for years that there needs to be better ways to manage devices and configurations.  What better tool to do that you ham AI?  But Apple has never thought that way about device management.  They need some real thinking outside the Apple Box when it comes to AI.  I’m not sure that’s something they are currently capable of.