jdw

As reported by 9to5 Mac, the problem goes far beyond Big Sur slowdowns.  It centers on MacOS constantly sending detailed app usage data back to Apple, which in turn can be access on demand by governments and is even readable by ISPs!  Read that article.  

Thankfully, that can be mitigated by Little Snitch in Catalina and earlier versions of MacOS, but as the article states, Big Sur doesn't allow Little Snitch to block the outflow of data to Apple's servers.  While most of us probably don't mind Apple knowing what apps we use, when and where we use them, the fact that an ISP or a government can easily gain access that personal info is highly disturbing to say the least.  This is truly one of the biggest security and privacy related stories to come out in a long time, especially when you consider how strongly Apple has been trying to protect our privacy and personal data.

If something isn't intended to be stock buying advice, it's best to not give even the slightest hint of stock buying advice.

I myself am not into silly disclaimers.  Here is some solid stock buying advice.  I am not a professional.  I am an individual investor who has done well with the stock over the past two decades.  As an AAPL shareholder since 1999 who has never sold even a single share, I would advise to buy $1,000 or more now and hold it for the next 20 years.  Don't be tempted to sell.  Don't be a day trader.  Unless things go serious wrong during that 20 years, you'll earn dividends on your investment (which has been true since 2012), and you stand to gain quite a lot in stock appreciation, assuming the US government doesn't damage Apple through silly antitrust suits.

Do you know what led me to buy my first batch of shares in AAPL at the end of the 1990's?  It may sound a little silly but it was just these things: (1) I had a strong passion for all things Apple and had since my start with the Mac in 1984 and that made me more willing to throw my money Apple's way to see what would happen, and (2) I saw the stock price was slowly rising and with Steve Jobs back on board I had confidence of great things to come.  

Steve is no longer with the company, but Tim Cook really has done a smash up job with the stock since Jobs' passing in 2011.  Even folks who dislike Cook cannot deny that.  True, Cook won't live forever and probably won't be CEO 20 years hence, but they seem to have a good succession plan hammered out that will keep Apple a well oiled machine for many years to come -- again, assuming the US government doesn't try to destroy this home-grown wonder company that we as Americans should be thankful for, not bashing for being big and successful.

I have given similar buying advice to my friends through the years regarding AAPL.  Most people tend to ignore me, thinking the current prices are somehow "too high" and incorrectly thinking they won't gain much. Some people don't have much disposable income and feel they need to use every penny they have now, thinking that investments are only for more wealthy people with much more disposable income.  Regardless of those excuses, had my friends back in Oct. 2011 taken my advice to buy $1,000 in AAPL at that time, their investment (including dividends) would be worth over $12,000 today.  Do the math yourselves here:

https://dqydj.com/stock-return-calculator/

And while past returns are no guarantee of future returns, you can bet your bottom dollar the Apple success story isn't coming to an abrupt halt anytime soon.  The more you invest, the higher your risk for los and also the higher the potential for gain.  Some folks blow a heck of a lot more than $1,000 on a silly gaming that loses value the day you buy it.  Investing in a stock like AAPL really is a solid choice compared to what most people throw their money at.  You can take that to the bank.

DAalseth said:

I've never agreed with Apple claiming a portion of all sales from an app even if those sales don't go through the AppStore.
Look at it this way. I have a store. You want to sell something, a computer let's say, in my store. I can and should get a cut of the price for my trouble of hosting your product That's fair.
But should I then demand a cut of everything else that is bought with that computer? 
Oh and don't go around saying if they don't like it they can go elsewhere, to Android for example. Apple has the only store where developers make significant money. 

All of the above is mere DISAGREEMENT WITH RULES.  It's more about FAIRNESS in the minds of some than FREE MARKET CAPITALISM. 

If I tell you, "you can sell your Dell in my store but I get a 30% cut of the computer sale and 30% of any sales you make with that computer," it sounds harsh and unfair until you realize you don't need to sell your Dell computer in that store!  You could POSSIBLY sell it elsewhere.  Now if somebody like DAslseth claims, "it would NOT sell well elsewhere," that very well could be true.  But in that case, you need to use your brain and admit, "I should NOT be selling a Dell!"

In other words, stop blaming others like Apple for your own entrepreneurial incompetence.  

If you can't make it as an app developer in light of the existing rules on Apple's app store, and if indeed that's the ONLY store you could possible sell apps, then become something else!  Get hired at FaceBook or Google or Microsoft or IBM or even Apple as a programmer to use your skills another way.  If you are a great app developer, you should be able to get those high paying jobs.  And since your complain is about MONEY in the first place, getting a high paying job should eliminate your complaints!

The core of this fight centers on getting pissed off at an organization which found success in the American FREE MARKET.  Apple is America's home grown success story that we should celebrate, not lambast!  

Just because Apple's App Store really is the only app store that makes good money these days in no way makes Apple a monopoly insofar as they sell more than just apps.  The FREE MARKET decided that Apple's App Store is really THE store to go to if you want to make money on apps.  But again, that does not dictate that YOU must make apps.  To make or not to make an app is a FREE CHOICE.  If you choose to get pissed off and cry like a baby to lawyers and Congress because you want to make apps but DISLIKE THE RULES, should the world suddenly change to suit YOU?  

This is why looting is so addictive among people who feel they've been treated unfairly.  They see one guy break a store window and steal, then they convince themselves they too are entitled to it, so they barge right it and steal something from that store too. It then becomes a free-for-all.  That's what some developers are trying to do now by breaking the glass of Apple's App Store.  They want what they want and they will use whatever means necessary to get it.  What started out as mere "fairness" leads them to take what is not theirs to take.

It goes without saying we love Apple and most people will defend Apple in a forum like this.  And as an AAPL investor, I want Apple to succeed, not the silly people suing Apple.  But when you think about all this objectively, how you ultimately think about this topic boils down to whether you are in favor of FREE MARKET CAPITALISM or instead in favor of some form of SOCIALISM or even COMMUNISM. If you get Big Brother to force Apple to change it's app store policies, that is NOT "free market capitalism."  "Fairness" is a great concept, but it's not fundamental to how Capitalism works.

LOL.  Apple discontinued the 12" MacBook.  So to refresh that and make that resurrected model the ONLY ARM Mac wouldn't do much.  It could be that most Mac users would just shun the machine, ultimately leading Apple to return to Intel again.  To truly make the switch to ARM would need to be done across the entire Mac line in a way that was done in the past when Apple switched from 68K to PPC, or when they switched from PPC to Intel.  A one-machine stepping stone switch would probably be a lot lot that TouchBar, which isn't on every Mac and where many Mac users are saying, "do we really need this?"

Another consideration is the Mac Pro.  Even 3 years from now, would Apple's ARM chip really be powerful enough to transition the Mac Pro to ARM?  If not, would you end up with the iMac, MBP, MB Air, MB, and Mac Mini being ARM while the Mac Pro remains Intel?  How strange and odd that would be!  It would seem to make a whole lot more sense to switch from Intel to Ryzen.

iqatedo said:

jdw said:

I've loved Apple since my 128K in 1984 and have never to this day owned even a single Windows machine.  With that said...

Much of what you wrote applies also to me. My first Mac was a 512 k. (On its single double density, dual-sided 'floppy' disk, were stored the operating system, applications and documents.) I believe though that Apple needs to re-invent personal computing and technologies exist (some on the horizon) to achieve this where others can't.

A kindred spirit!  I've actually been working on my Mac 512K recently, which still has the original 64K ROMs and 400K internal drive.  (Only machines with the 128K ROMs can use 800K drives, so you must have had a 512Ke.)  Anyway, I purchased a FloppyEMU a while back which has really streamlined the experience.  I can easily write software to an SD card on any modern Mac, then put that SD in the FloppyEMU for booting the Mac.  And Macintosh Garden is stocked with all the old programs we loved back in the day, including good old Cap'n Magneto!