PauloSeraa

nubus said:

Apple is having very few products for Christmas and the usual end-of-year business. MBA 15 was launched in time for "back to school" so it can be done.
Surely Watch 9 and iPhone 15 series are nice, but those are the only products that got upgraded in Q3.

The current iPad range has stalled with sales down to levels last seen in  2014. iPad 10 and Air became way too expensive for what they deliver. We have seen MBA 13 pricing being cut. I do expect for Apple to do the same for iPad and iPad Air. Stalled sales are impacting accessories as well. Apple should drop M1 and use A17 for a more affordable Air while delivering better gaming.

I don't see any other options for launching products that can be delivered and sold in Q4.

The iPad line needs help. Desperately. It will take someone other than Tim Cook to make the changes it needs, however.

The lineup should consist of:

iPad - $299 - 10"

iPad Air - $399 - 7"
iPad Air. - $499 - 10"

iPad Pro - $699 - 11"
iPad Pro - $899 - 13"

All of them should be running M1 or newer, all of them should have a display compatible with Apple Pencil 2, and the Air should have Face ID and 120Hz display (I refuse to call it ProMotion anymore because there is nothing Pro about it, time has passed and it should have trickled down to mid tier iPhones and iPads by now). 

Amazingly, it's the first product Apple has ever introduced that no one actually wants to use. Oh, some people want the experience it unlocks, for sure. But no one actually wants to use the product...they will use it in spite of it. No one actually wants a gigantic, heavy, nausea-inducing, world-isolating headset. Not for anything. And certainly not for what amounts to an iPad strapped to their head. So every single user will be someone who is putting up with that awful hardware in order to get access to an interesting software experience. What kind of potential does that actually have?

I feel like Apple is doing an awful lot of pretending here. And those championing the product are too. Riding the coattails of other confident successes where Apple was right to be confident. There are seeing if they can actually fake the confidence, and create a market as a result. I just don't see it, because you will never fake people into spending $3500+, and you won't fake them into wearing it for any length of time.

No one ever looked at the iPhone and said, "Ugh I have to hold this thing in order to use it?" 
No one ever looked at the Apple Watch and said "Ugh I have to wear this thing in order to use it?"
No one ever looked at the HomePod and said "Ugh I have to plug this thing in and put it out of the way somewhere in order to use it?"
No one ever looked at the AppleTV and said "Ugh I have to plug this thing into my TV and watch it?"

These are not objectionable products. The VisionPro is objectionable hardware from the start. People in the microscopic VR community seem to take for granted that shitty uncomfortable hardware is to be expected if you want such an experience. That shouldn't be acceptable to Apple, because it certainly isn't acceptable to average consumers.

Every search engine is great, until you compare the results against Google. I'd be happy to never use Google again, but as someone who uses internet search as a professional aid, that's not an option. Google is much more powerful and useful than every other search engine, x1000.

foregoneconclusion said:

mikethemartian said:

foregoneconclusion said:

twolf2919 said:

StrangeDays said:

Kuo has absolutely no business insight into Apple strategy, pricing discussion, or decision-making. He only has leaking supply chain contacts. There’s zero way he can know what Apple is thinking strategically years in the future.

Correction: he's got supply chain insights/contacts *and* common sense.  The latter alone enables anyone to forecast dismal sales for a $3500 toy with no mass market use case- no matter how good the experience.

???? Ever looked at 4K OLED TV prices for larger sizes like 77" or higher? It's pretty obvious that there are people who will spend $3500 or more on a higher end TV experience.

Large TVs allow multiple people to sit and watch one screen.

Sure. But if you pay $3500-$4,000 for a 77 inch 4K OLED then that's all that you're getting. If you want something bigger you'll have to spend additional thousands of dollars. AVP gives you movie theater to drive-in theater sized screens if you want. 

No it doesn't. It gives you a totally isolated environment where you can only enjoy content by yourself. How many people go to movies and drive ins by themselves?

Expectations are high for M3 because of moving to 3nm. If M3 performance doesn't meet with people's expectations (realistic or not), then sales will certainly be impacted.

M3 needs better GPU performance, Thunderbolt 5, and improved battery life all at the same time if its going to motivate anyone to upgrade from M1.